Sep 20, 2018 2 min read

DONORA – The state has revoked a Donora personal care home’s license to operate because of regulatory issues, including a failure to report abuse allegations to aging officials.

The Department of Human Services also is threatening to issue daily fines against Touched by an Angel for what it labeled “gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct” in the way in which it conducts business, online state records state.

The decision to revoke the license stemmed from inspections in March, May and June that also involved problems with cleanliness, violations of patients’ rights to privacy, failure to track medications and other record-keeping issues, the department stated in a nearly 40-page Sept. 10 letter to Jennifer Succuro, the home’s administrator.

One of the cases involved a resident’s complaint to a hospital March 20 that he or she suffered a leg injury as a result of abuse by a personal care home worker. Donora police were notified of the complaint, but it was not reported, as required, to the Area Agency on Aging. The home responded by indicating it notified the agency, that the resident tended to make up stories and the worker was cleared to return to the schedule.

A March 27 inspection found a small hole in a residence door with a washcloth stuffed into it, along with a broken closet door in that room, the record shows.

The department also alleged that residents were being examined by their physicians in front of other people in the administrator’s office.

On March 30, the home failed to report to the Area Agency on Aging a complaint involving a resident who said he or she was being sexually abused by another resident, the record alleges.

Another resident was admitted in December 2017 with a psychiatric evaluation that listed a history of violent behavior and assaulting people. A subsequent evaluation by the home stated that resident did not require supervision, state officials said.

The department had yet to begin fining the home, but it gave it until today to file an appeal of the decision to revoke the license to the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals. It was not immediately known Thursday if an appeal had been filed in the case.

Succuro did not return a message seeking comment Thursday.