Lauderdale Lakes Commission - Lauderdale Lakes, Florida

Rick Cooper

Greetings. This is designed to inform like-minded individuals the way our loved ones are being mistreated to the point of taking advantage of. As I illustrate, let it be known that if this is happening to me, it is happening to others and in some cases worse.

I first thought it was The Palms Rehabilition and Nursing.Center of Lauderdale Lakes only to find out these transgresssions occure throughout the the nation. I have warned every administrator from Karlene Case going back to Ken Angel. Each as ineffective as the one before. That they have a serious liability in Mark LaCroix as your Director of Nursing (DON) as pointed out on several occasions by management having to stay after-hours in order to “fix” the records. Many times prior to AHCA visits to show AHCA, corperate, and others a false front.

Corruption and greed

Sgt. Lynquist from Broward Sheriff’s office, Helen Facien from AHCA, Health Department, Leigh Davis of Umbusmemt, and other agencies are being lied to consistently by Palms of Lauderdale Lakes. In most cases they simply did nothing. The people involved are as fallows; Corperate, Karlene Case Adminstrator, Ken Angel former Administrator, Mark LaCrox Nursing Director, Wendy Nursing Supervisior (now DON), Manwella, Human Resources (as she knew of Mark LaCrox’s past from other postings), Members of the Nursing staff include; Suzzette, Wound Care nurse, Brenda Cutain nurse, Marteen nurse. The nurses are just as coulpable as they knew what was going on but failed to speak out about it. Largely due to fact that they may lose their jobs. It would seem as though they generated 2 sets of books, one for corperate, AHCA, and any other agencies. The other set was the "real" set of books.

Greed went further by hiring only those people whom only Mark knew. Many more qualified nurses and CNAs weren’t hired so that the staff could be hired through Mark. And thus adding to his wallet through a profitable referral program. Resulting in a 98% Hatian staff demographic.

In another examplr of corruptiom and greed, Mark LaCroix consistently stole medication from residents and lyied to cover it up. Moreover the nursing staff is filled with incompetant nurses and CNAs. Many of whom can’t care for the critically ill.

This brings me to my next topic. Another reason the staff is poorly trained is because “In service” sessions are designed to further the education of the nursing staff. Instead they are trained to:

• remove residents who are a preserved threat to management through “Backer Acting”.
• Not sending out sever cases to the hospital for fear of further showing how incompetent they really are.
• Falsifing records and lying to cover it up.
• Not fallowing state guidelines and requirements
• Largely designed to cover up management’s incompatance.

As a result the nusing staff is:
1. No continuity with the medications between the nurses.
2. Many times nurses don’t wear gloves when working with patients, showing incompetence.
3. Nurses are often condescending and arrogant to cover poor training, technique and incompetence.
4. Most are poorly trained.
5. Treating the MARS as gospel even when proven wrong.