Lawrence Place ordered to close

Russellville - Franklin County Circuit Judge Terry Dempsey ordered the owners of Lawrence Place Assisted Living Facility to close and see to the relocation of its 12 residents by midnight Monday.

The order comes on the heels of an emergency investigation by surveyors from the Alabama Department of Public Health based on complaints that residents were at serious risk of harm as a result of abuse and mismanagement of medication.

"We're pleased with the outcome and feel that (Dempsey) made the right decision; it's the only decision that could be reached based on what was going on at Lawrence Place," said Rick Harris, spokesman for the state health department.

The investigation into Lawrence Place began in January when the facility received 38 points out of a possible 100 points. Since then, facility owner Roger Jacobsen signed a consent agreement with the state, indicating he would sell Lawrence Place to a suitable owner. As recently as Friday, he accepted earnest money toward the sale from Southern Rural Healthcare, a home-health conglomerate based in Franklin County.

Jacobsen said moving the residents was "the state's problem. The state is forcing people out who have lived with us for five, six, maybe seven years. Do they realize the trauma this could cause?"

He purchased the facility in 1995.

As part of the judge's order, Jacobsen and the staff were required to cooperate with the state health department and the Department of Human Resources. Also, Jacobsen will be unable to operate a healthcare facility in Franklin County in the future.

Among those still living at Lawrence Place on Monday was Thomas Evans, a 66-year-old retired accountant who must have the help of a lift to get out of his bed and into his wheelchair. He had lived at Lawrence Place for almost eight years.

Evans said no other assisted living facility would take him as a resident because of his needs, and he said he would refuse to go to a hospital or a nursing home.

"I've seen what goes on in those places," he said as tears rolled down his cheeks. "Even an average renter has 30 days to find a new place to live. This is my home here. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm going to refuse to leave."

Evans is among the residents who has no immediate family in the area and who will be handled in the transfer by DHR, Harris said.

Others, like Mable Spears, who is 92, has a son and daughter nearby to help her, but she said she was unaware her move would happen so quickly, having learned of the closure from a reporter.

"I had no idea I would have to go," she said, adding that she felt upset and nervous at the prospect of displacement. "They've always been nice to me here, but I guess last spring you'd say things started to get different."

Spears said she'd never been mistreated, never missed a meal or shower or hair appointment from an absent staff. What she noticed, however, was a change in the time it might take for the nurses to respond to her needs.

Monday morning, for instance, came and went without a shower for her, something that had happened like clockwork in the past.

"It's been a while since they vacuumed my room, and I might have to wait for help with things," she said. "But this is all so sudden with the closing. Either I'll go to a nursing home or I'll live with my daughter. I just don't know."

An unclean facility and an unresponsive staff were among the problems uncovered by the ADPH during its initial survey of Lawrence Place in January. Also cited in the report was the absence of an administrator on duty.

Jacobsen fired his previous administrator in May, and Renee Bragwell assumed the position later in the year.

Jacobsen and Bragwell contend this latest move by the state is a form of harassment.

Even with the impending sale of Lawrence Place to Southern Rural Healthcare, the state may still have a say in the future of the facility and its residents.

"Since we signed the agreement with Lawrence Place on Feb. 8, it was under the condition that we approve the new owner," Harris said. "Southern Rural has no experience running an assisted living facility, and we cannot agree to let them operate it if they don't know how."

Jacobsen said he and officials with Southern Rural had agreed on a consultant who would be able to instruct the new owners on how to operate the facility.

Michelle Rupe Eubanks can be reached at 740-5745 or michelle.eubanks@timesdaily.com.