Columbia care home owner mistreated 4 patients, cops say. Death at home investigated

The owner of a Columbia senior care home is accused of abusing or neglecting four patients and investigators are looking into the death of another patient at the home, according to officials.

Betty Miles, 74, is charged with four counts of abuse or neglect of a vulnerable adult, according to court records and Capt. Maria Yturria, spokeswoman for the Richland County Sheriff’s Department. Miles was charged July 3 and released on $20,000 bond the following day, court records show.

The charges stemmed from an investigation brought by a report filed with the sheriff’s department on July 2 asking for a welfare check at Miles Residential Care, of which Miles is the owner, Yturria said. The facility is in northeast Richland County between U.S. 321 and U.S. 21.

The report was filed by the owner of an assisted-living facility, who told deputies that two patients at Miles Residential Care were “not receiving appropriate medicinal administration,” according to a copy of the incident report. That representative told investigators that lab work on the two victims, who were “severely underweight,” indicates that they were not receiving the appropriate amount of vital medications, the report states.

“From that report, our investigators have made four charges,” Yturria said. “They (the victims) were not receiving proper medical care.”

The four patients at the home were taken into emergency protective custody, Yturria said.

The report says that the coroner’s office is investigating the death of a patient at the facility in late June.

Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said his office is awaiting test results to determine what killed the patient, Henry Harmon.

Watts said his office has not released information about the death because it’s still under investigation.

It’s unclear whether Miles has retained an attorney. A phone call to the facility was not answered and a voicemail was not returned.

Miles’ license was suspended by the S.C. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation in November 2016 for violating the S.C. Long Term Health Care Administrators Practice Act, according to state documents. The order of suspension did not go into detail about what prompted the suspension.

The license has not been reinstated, an LLR spokeswoman said.

The suspension followed a 2015 public reprimand by the agency, which came after violations were found during multiple DHEC inspections at the facility in 2011 and 2012, according to the order. An employee at the state Department of Mental Health also told agency investigators that Miles was hostile and uncooperative toward her and two patients she was relocating from Miles Residential Care.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control revoked the facilities license to operate as a community residential care facility in October 2016, DHEC spokeswoman Erica Knight said. The Mileses held a license with the state since December 1992.

During a January 2016 inspection, DHEC employees found residents living in unusually low temperatures, according to an administrative order that revoked the couple’s license. According to the inspection, some rooms only reached 60.5 degrees. The warmest measured with only 70 degrees.

Residential facilities are required to stay somewhere between 72 and 78 degrees, according to the order.

Inspectors also measured water temperature, finding that the sinks in the bathrooms only reached about 50 degrees, according to the order.

DHEC also cited the facility for not keeping written records concerning residents, their assessments and their individual care plans, according to the order.

During a follow-up inspection, DHEC employees found more violations, including storing expired medication with current medication, unclean equipment in the kitchen and other environmental hazards.

Since DHEC revoked the license, they have received one complaint at the address of their business, Knight said. They found the couple operating without a license, and required they submit a plan of correction by July 26.

Knight said DHEC also plans on “pursuing enforcement action,” against the Mileses.

Miles faces up to five years in prison on each of the charges, if convicted.

This story was originally published July 23, 2018 at 3:28 PM.