Cayce police probe hindered care for residents at assisted living home, staffer says
A Cayce Police Department investigation impeded staff at an assisted living facility from giving residents medication, among other impediments to care, according to a report filed with state care facility regulators.
The administrator of Twilite Manor, a Cayce assisted living facility on Forrest Street that has been clouded by controversy since a resident’s death, told the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, “because of the (Cayce police) investigation, I was not allowed to get in and administer meds.”
The health and environmental department regulates assisted living facilities.
“When they did allow me, I gave medication to all clients who the police had not put on transport,” the administrator wrote in the report, which was submitted Feb. 28 to the health department.
The administrator’s report places some of the blame on Cayce police’s investigation for three citation against Twilite Manor in the wake of the resident’s death.
Those three citations were for not having given the residents medication, not having fed residents breakfast and being understaffed, all on the day of the death.
Controversy surrounded Twilite Manor after a man died in the facility in February. In the following days, disputes among the police department, state health regulators and social services about the facility’s conditions only heightened the confusion.
The newly uncovered report by Twilite Manor’s administrator also disputes police’s findings and reinforces what a disabilities advocate told The State the day after police moved all of the about a dozen residents of the facility — that police overreacted and harmed residents more than helped them through the investigation.
A spokesperson for the Cayce Police Department did not comment on the specifics of the administrator’s report. At the time of the resident’s death and investigation, the police department said, “We were not sure when the remaining residents would receive food, medications, medical attention, or the general assistance they needed and deserved.”
“Our officers felt grave concern for the remaining residents,” the police department said. “We knew their well-being was in imminent danger.”
The police department said in late February that officers actually helped residents get their medication on the day of the investigation.
“Care of residents matters very much” to the police, department spokesperson Ashley Hunter said in late February.
Police caused problems?
Twilite Manor voluntarily closed after residents and an employee found 69-year-old Timothy Frank Catalano dead on Feb. 18 at about 9:30 a.m. He had died from a lung condition, the Lexington County Coroner’s Office concluded.
Cayce police investigated and said they found that residents had not been given medications or fed that morning. Another resident needed to be hospitalized immediately for an unspecified condition.
The police’s finding were contradicted by state regulators, who said that residents were not in immediate danger from living at Twilite Manor. But by the end of the regulators’ inspection, they concluded that Twilite Manor was understaffed on the day of Catalano’s death. The home was required to have two staff members working at the time of the death but only had one.
The report by the facility’s administrator said that another staff member was scheduled to work but was late on the day of the death. After back-up staff arrived, the police didn’t allow the second staff member “to perform ... duties,” the report said.
Residents and staff were “confused and traumatized” by what was going on, the report said.
Residents at the facility were fed breakfast, the report said, but it doesn’t specify if they were fed was before or after police arrived. Residents also received lunch despite “all that was happening,” the administrator wrote.
Reopening plans
The administrator’s report gives health regulators plans to correct the three citation. All staff will be required to contact the administrator if running late, breakfast will be served at posted times, and all staff will be trained to give medication.
Filing the plans with regulators came as part of a request by Twilite Manor to reopen.
The facility could open again as soon as Monday, March 14, health regulators said Friday.
Regulators were scheduled to inspect the facility Friday to ensure it had “an adequate food supply and staffing.”
WIS reported that after the inspection, regulators requested further documentation from the facility about staff training.
“The Department strongly requests the Facility complete and provide evidence of the in-service trainings and health assessment prior to its reopening,” the health department said.
Those trainings include first-aid, medication management and CPR training among others, WIS reported.
How the health department’s request might affect Twilite Manor’s reopening is unclear.
Health regulators never stripped Twilite Manor of its licenses to operate, and Cayce police haven’t charged anyone associated with the facility with a crime.
Past controversies
Twilite Manor has been hit with problems before the most recent controversy.
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.