State closes Wake Forest assisted-living center

WAKE FOREST -- In an unusual move, state human services regulators Thursday ordered a Wake Forest assisted-living center to shut down and move all residents by Monday.

Wake Forest Care Center has a long history of violations, including several involving the deaths of two residents who wandered off unattended, one in 2006 and one last month.

The shutdown and an order to admit no more residents was based on a state finding that emergency action was required to protect the residents, Barbara Ryan, chief of the adult care licensure section of the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a letter to the care center's owner, Richard Cresenzo.

Cresenzo was told that he must find new locations for residents by 5 p.m. Monday or whenever the last resident has been safely placed.

Cresenzo, a Burlington lawyer, said, as he has in the past, that he was surprised at being found at fault and especially at having the home closed.

"I feel like I've been wronged," he said in a telephone interview. "My facilities run deficiency-free. I've been in this business for 30 years."

Only a handful of assisted-living centers, which are less medically intensive and regulated than nursing homes, have been shut down on the spot by North Carolina in recent years. To keep from displacing residents, regulators typically give operators time to correct infractions and pay sometimes substantial fines.

The action follows the December death of McKinley High, 79, a retired farmer from Spring Hope who was a resident of the center. A driver not far from the center struck High in the middle of a suburban street after he wandered off from the facility. High suffered fatal injuries in the collision.

"The man had no indication that he had dementia," Cresenzo said. "It's not a locked facility."

Fines since 2006

The 80-bed center at 306 S. Allen St. has been fined more than $40,000 since 2006 for violations found by county and state inspectors. In a recent survey that Cresenzo said lasted five or six days, inspectors found violations in giving out medications, using restraints, residents' rights, food services, and training on caring for residents with diabetes, state records showed.

The previous fatal incident happened in 2006, when Miklos Ankhelyi, 67, wandered away while living at the home and drowned in a nearby creek. That incident cost the center a state fine of $12,000. Like High, Ankhelyi had been previously seen by neighbors, walking away from the home unattended.

"We hate that it happened," Cresenzo said of High's death at the time.

Piles of clothes, neatly placed on hangers or stored in boxes, sat alongside Christmas decorations near the entrance Thursday night, ready to be moved out. Teary-eyed staff spoke often with residents.

Despite years in which the center had racked up tens of thousands of dollars in violations, one resident who called The News & Observer and another introduced by management both said they wanted to stay in the home.

"Am I worried? Of course I am," said Pat Webb, 69. "I'm worried for other people."

Webb said she would like the center to stay open, as did Mary Dolan, 60, a former president of the home's residents council.

"I was supposed to have a special birthday party next week," Dolan said in the manager's office. "I've never had problems with the employees or the residents.

"This is not a charity home, and sometimes the residents can be demanding. But the whole community should not be punished, and the employees need a job."

Polly Williams, a retired N.C. State University professor who advocates for older people at the legislature and elsewhere, said the state is generally very reluctant to close assisted-living facilities because even sub-par centers often feel like home to the residents.

"I'm sure that it's serious, but whether they could find someone else to take over I don't know," Williams said of the center. "The residents' health is often fragile enough that being moved is really bad for them."