RI Nursing Home Administrator Suspended for “Gross Unprofessional Conduct”

RI Nursing Home Administrator Suspended for “Gross Unprofessional Conduct”

The Rhode Island Department of Health’s (RIDOH) disciplinary committee has suspended Kristine Pacheco. According to RIDOH records, she was last the administrator at Elderwood of Scallop Shell at Wakefield. But RIDOH's records are not up to date.

“[Pacheco] had engaged in behavior that constituted "gross unprofessional conduct" against her Nursing Home Administrator license,” stated RIDOH in its action. 

RIDOH licensing database lists Pacheco at Elderwood. A receptionist at Edlerwood told GoLocal that Pacheco is no longer at the nursing home. The company's website continues to list Pacheco as the administrator under her married name Pacheco-Cardozo; her license with the State of Rhode Island is under the last name Pacheco and lists Scallop Shell as the address. 

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GoLocal has learned that she was suspended for her actions at Pawtucket Falls Healthcare Center, which went into receivership in 2023. 

Pawtucket Falls is one of the most fined nursing home facilities in Rhode Island. SEE THE LIST BELOW

Pacheco previously ran “Bayview Rehabilitation at Scalabrini, North Kingstown’s leading skilled nursing facility with a 50-year tradition of providing the finest in short-term rehab & long-term care.”

In less than two years she has been an administrator at three different nursing homes in Rhode Island.

 

 

Pacheco Cited for Actions that Led to 13 Cases of COVID

According to the RIDOH, the series of events that led to Pacheco’s suspension were as follows:

[On] July 20, 2024, the Respondent directed an employee ("Employee A") that she supervised at a nursing home, to prepare meals for residents without supervision or training on multiple occasions. Employee A prepared meals on July 20, August 3, and August 4.

Employee A was not properly trained, certified, or licensed to do such work.

This direction violated R.I. Food Code, 2018 edition, sec. 2-101.12 and 2-102.20, potentially exposing residents to various food-borne illnesses and other hazards.

[On] Wednesday, July 31, 2024, Employee A tested positive for COVID-19 while at work and was instructed by the Infection Control Preventionist for the facility to leave work and not return until the following Wednesday.

The Respondent directed Employee A to return to work cooking in the kitchen on Saturday, August 3, 2024 and Sunday, August 4, 2024, prior to the end of her required seven (7) day COVID-19 isolation period. Employee A returned to work on August 3 and August 4.

On August 8, 2024, 13 residents of the nursing home tested positive for COVID-19.

"The RIDOH director (the "Director of Health") has reviewed the facts and conclusions in this case and finds that public health, safety, or welfare imperatively requires emergency action," stated the RIDOH in its findings.

 

COVID Has Been a Killer of the Elderly

When COVID broke out in Rhode Island in the spring and summer of 2020, RIDOH officials in then-Governor Gina Raimondo's administration green-lighted nursing home COVID patients who had been treated in the hospitals to be sent back into the nursing homes, causing the spread of the virus to the uninfected and leading to hundreds of deaths.

That strategy was reversed and abandoned, but the damage was done.

For much of the COVID crisis, Rhode Island ranked as the most infected state per capita in the country, and the number of nursing home deaths was also among the highest in the United States. Today, Raimondo serves as the Commerce Secretary in President Joe Biden's administration.

At one point, Rhode Island was the most infected place in the world.

 

WATCH the GoLocal Film on Raimondo's record of managing the COVID crisis BELOW

 

 

 

This is an ongoing GoLocal investigation into Rhode Island's nursing homes. 

SEE THE LIST OF THE 18 NURSING HOMES FINED MORE THAN $100,000 BELOW

This story was updated at 5:01 PM on August 17, 2024.