Improved Safety Measures
| Legislation and Public Policy | Our Lawyers Teach Other Lawyers | Engagement with Advocacy Groups |
Requiring Nursing Homes to Adopt Improved Safety Measures
Dorothy Cooper was a 62 year old nursing home resident who was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a nursing home employee. She resided at Terrace West nursing home in Midland, Texas. Because of a stroke and resulting paralysis she was wheelchair bound and dependent on staff for most of her needs.
Texas Health Enterprises, one of the largest operators of nursing homes in Texas, operated Terrace West nursing home. Its employee, Johnny Gordon, was a powerful, 6'2", 200 lb male nurse aide with an extensive criminal history, having served time in the penitentiary for burglary and forgery. Mr. Gordon also had a history of physically abusing helpless nursing home residents. Approximately a year before being hired at Terrace West nursing home, he had been terminated from New Horizons nursing home for repeatedly abusing a helpless, wheelchair bound resident. Terrace West and New Horizons were both owned by Texas Health Enterprises.
Notwithstanding that its personnel director repeatedly recommended that it do so, Texas Health Enterprises kept no list of former employees who were ineligible for rehire due to abuse of a resident. He estimated that approximately three times a month, residents in Texas Health's facilities were harmed by employees who had been rehired after having been previously fired for abuse and neglect of residents. Despite the known danger this practice created, the company refused to implement a registry system, citing expense as the reason. Interestingly, the company maintained a “worker’s compensation abuse registry” which had to be checked to determine if a job applicant had filed any medical claims against the company for on-the-job injuries.
As a consequence of Texas Health’s refusal to implement a system to prevent employment of job applicants who had been previously fired, Johnny Gordon was rehired at Terrace West. He was given unrestricted access to female residents, including Dorothy Cooper. As a nurse aide, Gordon's job duties included cleaning and bathing female residents, usually without the presence of a female employee. Over a three month period, he repeatedly sexually assaulted Dorothy Cooper. In order to hide his predatory conduct, Gordon threatened to kill Ms. Cooper if she ever revealed his ongoing assaults.
Sadly, sexual assaults in nursing homes occur more often than people realize. The emotional scars that Dorothy Cooper carried with her until her death are testament to the need for more stringent hiring practices by the nursing home industry. Her story demonstrates the unwillingness of the industry to bear any responsibility for hiring practices beyond the minimum requirements imposed by the State of Texas. Dorothy Cooper and other nursing home residents like her need to be protected from predators that victimize vulnerable residents.
As part of the settlement of the lawsuit brought on Dorothy Cooper’s behalf, The Marks Firm required Texas Health Enterprises to implement a system to ensure that unfit and dangerous individuals are denied access to defenseless nursing home residents. The system was appropriately named the "Dorothy System."
Under the Dorothy System, Texas Health Enterprises was required to create and maintain a registry of any person who, within the past five years, was terminated for abuse or neglect of a resident in any of its facilities. In order to create the database for the registry, Texas Health Enterprises was required to audit all personnel files at approximately 120 nursing homes for a 5 year period. Any individual who was determined to have abused or neglected a resident had to be entered into the registry. Thereafter, any employee who was determined to have abused or neglected a resident had to be immediately added to the registry. No Texas Health Enterprises facility could offer employment to any person listed in the registry. Prior to extending an offer of employment to any person in one of its facilities, the registry, maintained at central headquarters, must be checked.
Dorothy Cooper was a victim of the man who violated her and a victim of an industry that failed to protect her. We hope that through the required implementation of the "Dorothy System", the tragedy that occurred in Midland Texas will never occur again.
Click for Dallas Morning News Article
Click for Sexual Assault Report
