Cayce assisted living facility where resident died violated state regulations, DHEC finds
A Cayce assisted living facility where a resident died last week was understaffed and did not give residents medication or breakfast the morning of Feb. 18, when a 69-year-old resident was found dead at the facility, according to an inspection by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
One staff member was responsible for 16 residents that morning, when two employees should have been on duty, according to the report.
Twelve residents are now being relocated “to long-term placements” found by another state agency. The other residents are staying with family. The assisted living facility is legally able to serve residents, a DHEC spokesperson said, but the facility’s owners have not reopened it.
The inspection report comes after a death at Cayce’s Twilite Manor assisted living facility Friday, Feb. 18.
A staff member and other residents at Twilite Manor found 69-year-old Timothy Frank Catalano unresponsive the morning of Feb. 18. The Cayce police department was called around 9:30 a.m., and Catalano was later pronounced dead. An autopsy was scheduled for Monday, but a cause of death has not yet been reported.
When Cayce police officers arrived at the assisted living facility, which serves many disabled residents, they were told residents had not been fed or given medication since the night before, according to the police department. There were no medical professionals on duty, and a second resident was experiencing a health emergency requiring hospitalization.
Cayce police determined the conditions were unsafe and took residents of Twilite Manor into emergency custody. Some residents are now staying with relatives. Others were briefly held at Columbia’s Transitions Homeless Center in a holding area the Department of Social Services uses in emergencies, according to DHEC.
Representatives for Twilite Manor were not reached Tuesday.
After the residents were relocated, two state agencies and an organization advocating for the disabled community rebuked the Cayce Police Department’s handling of the incident as being too aggressive.
Several displaced residents have been asking to return to Twilite Manor, according to the Department of Social Services.
At least one advocate group for the disabled says Cayce police overstepped in taking residents out of their homes. Kimberly Tissot, president of Able SC, said the police response was a reaction to misconceptions about people with disabilities.
“I don’t know what authority they had under the law to make that call, but clearly there was a bias there about disability, and there’s no basis for removing them even if they have no medical professionals at the residential care facility,” Tissot said.
State law allows law enforcement to take a vulnerable adult into protective custody “if there is probable cause to believe that by reason of abuse, neglect, or exploitation there exists an imminent danger to the vulnerable adult’s life or physical safety.”
DHEC later said inspectors have found nothing at Twilite Manor posing an immediate threat to residents. The inspection did find that two staff members should have been working the morning of Feb. 18. The state requires assisted living facilities to have one staff member per eight residents on duty during “peak hours.” There were 16 residents at Twilite Manor Feb. 18.
State law does not require assisted living facilities to employ medical personnel.
One appropriately licensed staff member was on duty at Twilite Manor Feb. 18, according to DHEC. Police previously reported that a housekeeper found Catalano. DHEC clarified it was a staff member who was licensed to work in assisted living.
Twilite Manor has violated state regulations in the past, racking up $20,000 in fines in 2017 and 2018 for issues concerning staff training, medication administration, resident monies and the security of oxygen cylinders, among other issues.
In January, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office charged an employee of Twilite Manor with financial fraud and exploitation of a vulnerable adult. The office alleged that the employee stole a resident’s debit card and used it to make purchases.
In 2020, a blind, diabetic resident sued Twilite Manor after losing both feet to gangrene while under the facility’s care. The parties agreed to an alternative dispute resolution, and the lawsuit was dismissed.
Representatives for Twilite Manor have not been reached for comment.
This story was originally published February 22, 2022 at 4:23 PM.
