Florida Brain Injury Treatment Center Draws Scrutiny

For quite some time, the Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation (FINR) has been the talk of Wauchula, FL, and unfortunately the news hasn’t been favorable for this brain-injury center. Abuse, unacceptable employees conduct, and neglect of patients have all been familiar headlines and allegations over the past year. After hearing these accusations many patients have moved to other facilities to ensure proper treatment. After a surprise inspection, state officials found that fifty (50) of the ninety-eight (98) patients did not meet the criteria for treatment at FINR.  Thus, the brain injury treatment center was ordered to move these patients to other facilities.  However, on January 25, 2013, a Florida judge ruled in their favor, allowing them to treat the fifty patients and continue such care at FINR.

The potential loss of said patients would have been a huge loss in revenue for FINR. Just a few weeks prior to the recent ruling, they had filed for bankruptcy protection. In turn, fifty (50) occupied beds out of the one hundred and forty-three (143) available beds is not enough to keep the facility profitable going forward and changes must be implemented immediately within FINR to ensure patients will not leave on their own accord. If not, the facility will be in violation of a loan provision that requires the entity to have at least 75% daily occupancy. Unfortunately for FINR, their occupancy is decreasing on a daily basis and hasn’t shown any recent upturn.

This institute is one of the largest brain injury treatment facilities of its kind in the U.S. Thus, why wouldn’t it be an option for patients that require ongoing treatment for head injuries? Since 1998, patient’s families or state officials have suspected abuse or mistreatment in the deaths of at least five residents; two of which occurred in the past two years. It is very possible that the neglect of said patients is a result of the employees that FINR have assigned to care for them. Three former employees face criminal charges of abusing said patients, and another employee with a criminal background was working with the residential staff and shouldn’t have been eligible for employment. Over five hundred and fourteen (514) allegations of abuse and or neglect at FINR has been received by Florida’s Department of Children and Family since 2005, and are still being received as these patients are leaving and moving elsewhere.

It is fair to say that being able to treat the fifty (50) patients without traumatic brain injuries and not being required to send such individuals to other similar facilities was a relief for FINR, yet they still have many improvements to implement within their company to ensure that any patient being treated there will get the appropriate care and not be abused or neglected. Being one of the largest institutes in the United States, this facility has potential to be not only the largest but could be one of the best.

For more information on the subject of brain injury, please visit the brain injury lawyers at the Dolman Law Group.