Table of Content
- Lancaster County's 2005 sale of Conestoga View mandated quarterly reports, meetings — but few happened
- Police searching for suspect in Tacony arson fire
- residents dead at a Lancaster County nursing home following COVID-19 outbreak
- Owner of Ex-Conestoga View sentenced to probation for Delco nursing home deaths
- Nearly a quarter of residents at these four Lancaster nursing homes have died from COVID-19
Steg has become part-owner in at least 11 other Pennsylvania nursing homes, most of them in the Philadelphia area, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. According to property records, the seller, S&P Real Estate Company, is an affiliate of Montgomery County-based Complete HealthCare Resources-Eastern Inc., the company operating the facility since 1993. “We have several criminal investigations ongoing into nursing homes during the time of COVID, and we will be making the announcements that we can make relatively shortly on that,” Shapiro said. The Wolf administration was repeatedly warned of dangerously low minimum staffing and weak and inconsistent inspections, all problems that could have made the outbreak worse.
Steg also has had an ownership interest in Newport Meadows Health and Rehabilitation Center in Christiana since January 2020, according to CMS data. The federal agency’s star-rating system aggregates nursing home inspection reports and other measures to give consumers a sense of a facility’s quality. As part of the plea agreement, Steg will be sentenced to 6 to 23 months of house arrest followed by three years of probation.
Lancaster County's 2005 sale of Conestoga View mandated quarterly reports, meetings — but few happened
Shapiro says the three victims suffered from pressure wounds, sepsis, dehydration, and bowel obstructions. “A nursing home executive disregarded resident care by routinely and recklessly understaffing his nursing home, the St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Health Care. And this systemic environment of neglect, which came to a head in 2017, caused three people under his care and under the care of the facility to sustain severe bodily harm and injuries that we believe directly led to their deaths,” Shapiro said. During a rare trip to Darby from Harrisburg Wednesday, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that Chaim “Charlie” Steg, a local nursing home manager, has pleaded guilty to three counts of reckless endangerment — a 2017 case that could have far-reaching implications even in 2021. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that Chaim "Charlie" Steg, the former Regional Director of Operations at St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare, pleaded guilty to his role in recklessly endangering the three residents. A former nursing director told investigators she sometimes disobeyed Steg's orders and hired agency nurses “just so she could sleep at night,” the attorney general's office said.
These payments are in addition to fines of $504,325 already paid to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and the Department of Health as a result of the violations that launched this investigation and are acknowledged by the settlement agreement. The attorney general's office said it was called in to investigate in August 2017, when local police and the state Health Department notified it about issues at the facility. Chaim "Charlie" Steg, 40, of Lakewood, New Jersey pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless endangerment. According to Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the poor staffing at the 273-bed facility was not the result of financial hardship; on the contrary, Shapiro said, the nursing home had been profitable under Steg’s control. In spite of several communications that the home was understaffed—a single staffing coordinator reported employee shortages 40 times, said the article—Steg made no move to remedy the crisis. One former nursing director, desperate to assuage the situation, hired nurses despite Steg’s orders not to do so.
Police searching for suspect in Tacony arson fire
Infections—In understaffed nursing homes, infections can go undetected by overburdened staff and are left to worsen. The list below contains all the nursing homes with the name "Steg, Chaim" listed as an owner. This does not necessarily mean the owner name "Steg, Chaim" has ownership in every nursinghome listed on this page. The table will display the owner ship role, as well as the phone number and the address of the nursinghome. In addition to being under audit, the two companies that run the facility, 1412 Lansdowne Operating LLC and Catholic Health Group, had to pay $600,000 into an escrow account for the benefit of the facility’s residents. Investors can set up real estate trusts and separate the property from the nursing home operation, and use the real estate company to charge the nursing home business rent, she said.
The statement also indicated the company doesn't plan to make any more public comments on Steg’s plea agreement. Steg’s choice to forego a trial will prevent distractions that typically accompany protracted litigation and will allow our staff to remain laser-focused on the good work they do for those under their care,” Tarlow said in the written statement provided by Fladung at Hennes Communications. Steg was working as an employee in a regional support role with a different company” at St. Francis, and he joined Imperial later. The Office of Attorney General has agreed to more than a $1 million settlement with 1412 Lansdowne Operating and Catholic Facilities Operating. This settlement requires St. Francis to maintain an increased minimum staffing level and undergo an additional year of monitoring to ensure compliance through quarterly audits by the Department of Health. Violations will result in additional financial penalties and an extension of the supervisory period.
residents dead at a Lancaster County nursing home following COVID-19 outbreak
Investigators’ accounts of Steg’s understaffing at St. Francis echo in comments from current and recently departed staff members at LNRC, who claimed to LNP
DARBY—Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced Chaim “Charlie” Steg, former Regional Director of Operations at St. Francis Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare (St. Francis), has pled to his role in recklessly endangering three residents of the facility. This plea comes as the result of a joint investigation conducted by the Office of Attorney General and Darby Borough Police through the 44th Statewide Investigating Grand Jury. In addition, St. Francis will be required, through a civil settlement, to maintain an increased minimum staffing level and undergo quarterly audits by the Department of Health to ensure compliance. Steg's plea deal calls for a sentence of 6 to 23 months of house arrest and three years of probation, along with a $15,000 fine and restitution. Investigators concluded there had been “systemic failure,” mostly tied to inadequate staffing, the attorney general’s office said. The nursing home has agreed to maintain a sufficient number of employees and to be audited every three months for a year by the state Health Department, the attorney general’s office said.
Nursing Home Report
Our database of information about owners, managers, and directors of skilled nursing homes is based primarily on data provided by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ("CMS"). CMS updates this information eleven times a year, typically at the end of each calendar month except for December. We pull the data as soon as it is available, run through a series of data checks and calculations and make the new data available right away. The business entities of St. Francis, including a limited liability company that paid Steg’s salary, also agreed to a more-than $1 million settlement with the attorney general’s office.
That includes serving as a majority owner of any nursing home, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said at a Wednesday press conference. The case was prosecuted by Senior Deputy Attorney General Mark Levenberg and Deputy Attorney General Benjamin McKenna. OAG Special Agent Jen Nutter and Detective Brian Pitts of the Darby Borough Police Department led this joint investigation. One former Director of Nursing said at times she disobeyed orders from Steg to reduce staff just so she could sleep at night.
Shapiro said the inadequate staffing was not the result of financial hardship, but rather total negligence. A joint investigation between the Attorney General’s Office and Darby Borough Police began in 2017, when nurses from nearby Mercy Catholic Medical Center sounded the alarm on the deteriorating condition of residents who were transferred from the nursing home to the hospital. Across Pa., about 40,000 residents of more than 1,300 nursing and personal care homes have contracted the virus to date. Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 last year, 233 LNRC residents have contracted the virus, and 81 residents have died from it, according to the latest self-reported data to DOH. Unlike higher-rated facilities in the area, most Conestoga View residents depend on Medicaid to pay toward their housing.
Investigators concluded there had been "systemic failure," mostly tied to inadequate staffing, the attorney general's office said. The nursing home has agreed to maintain a sufficient number of employees and to be audited every three months for a year by the state Health Department, the attorney general's office said. One staffing coordinator told investigators she reported employee shortages 40 times, said Attorney General Josh Shapiro. "Every resident of every nursing home deserves to be safe, they deserve to be treated with respect and dignity, and they deserve to be heard," said Attorney General Shapiro. "It is the law to uphold the obligation to keep residents safe. If a facility cuts staff to the point that they can't give residents the care they need—we're going to find out, and we're going to hold them accountable." Nursing home residents have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania as a whole, accounting for roughly 6% of the cases, but half of the deaths.
Steg’s plea deal calls for a sentence of 6 to 23 months of house arrest and three years of probation, along with a $15,000 fine and restitution. He will be barred for five years from overseeing nursing, clinical or medical services of a skilled nursing facility. A former nursing director told investigators she sometimes disobeyed Steg’s orders and hired agency nurses “just so she could sleep at night,” the attorney general’s office said. Former manager of PA nursing home pleads guilty to endangering residents, Steg, whose sentencing was set for October, will serve, according to his plea deal, 6 to 23 months on house arrest and three years of probation. He will pay fines and restitution of $15,000 and will be barred from managing a skilled nursing facility for five years. The investigation identified three St. Francis residents who were victims of neglect.
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