The Florida Department of Health announced Tuesday that it has suspended the nursing license of a 68-year-old woman who was running an assisted living facility in DeFuniak Springs.
Frances Howell, owner of Howell House, lifted a 70-year-old woman up by the back of her pants and then deliberately caused her to fall down, according to an emergency license suspension order issued by the health department. The woman was injured from the fall.
The suspension states that Howell used force against the woman and failed to provide minimal standards of nursing practice. It said she presents an “immediate serious danger” to her patients.
Howell’s actions were an apparent attempt to get the woman moved out of her facility, according to the suspension.
Read a copy of the suspension order. >>
“Ms. Howell’s decision to deliberately cause (the woman) to fall, apparently in order to get (her) discharged from Howell House, demonstrates such a complete lack of care and concern for the health, safety or welfare of her patient that the safety of any of Ms. Howell’s patients cannot be assured as long as she continues to practice nursing,” the suspension order states.
Howell was arrested in November in connection with the incident. The state attorney general’s office has charged her with abusing an elderly person.
She is free on bond and a pretrial hearing is set for Feb. 21.
Rene Cox, the new owner of Howell House, said the facility is still up and running.
Cox replaced Howell as the facility’s manager in December, according to records filed the Secretary of State’s division of corporations.
Clay Adkinson, Howell’s attorney, said she had already stepped away from managing and practicing at the assisted living facility before her nursing license was suspended, and will continue to do so pending the outcome of the criminal charges.
She has pleaded not guilty.
“We don’t believe she should be prosecuted for this or that her license should be suspended,” Adkinson said.
The woman who Howell allegedly abused had been a client at Howell House since 2004. According to the facility’s records, she needed help getting around and used a walker because she was unsteady on her feet.
In July 2011, when the woman was 70 years old, Howell told an employee to make a video recording of her because she wanted to prove that that woman needed to be moved to a nursing home.
The woman was placed in a chair with her walker in front of her. She tried to stand up several times, but couldn’t lift herself and kept falling back into the chair, according to the suspension order.
Howell walked behind her and lifted her to her feet by pulling the back of her pants. She then removed the chair from behind the woman.
The woman stood for a few moments and then fell backward to the floor. She suffered a number of bruises and a back strain and was taken to a hospital emergency room.
After treatment, hospital officials tried to return the woman to the facility, but the Howell House refused to take her back, according to the suspension order. She was moved to a nursing home two days later.
A former employee who taped the video of the woman told investigators that a few minutes before the woman fell, Howell had instructed employees not to go into the bathroom to help her pull her pants up. The woman had to walk out of the bathroom with her pants down before someone assisted her.
The employee also told investigators that this had happened on more than one occasion, according to the suspension order.
He said he did not think Howell should be caring for elderly patients because she treated a lot of them in a similar fashion, although not always to the same extent.
Howell’s license was immediately suspended Jan. 24.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Lauren Sage Reinlie at 850-315-4440 or lreinlie@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @LaurenRnwfdn.