Festus Manor employee speaks out as latest health inspection reveals abuse at the facility

FESTUS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A Festus Manor employee is speaking out, saying workers there are being kept in the dark about the facility’s closure.

A Festus Manor employee of 12 years tells First Alert 4, “Patients were telling us employees and we were asking like managers and s what was going on and they weren’t really telling us much.”

The woman, who wants to remain anonymous, is the second person to tell First Alert 4 our reporting is how she found out about the nursing home’s closure.

She says she’s seen the facilities go through ups and downs, but she never expected it to end this way.

“Nobody’s saying anything and we have multiple family calling up reporting that they don’t know where their loved ones went,” says the employee.

Tuesday, we spoke with one of those family , who was frantic after realizing last week that her mom wasn’t at Festus Manor anymore.

According to the woman, there are only about 28 residents left in the 150-bed facility.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced funding would be terminated at the one-star rated facility.

We reached out the nursing home, and they would not tell us what led to this decision.

The employee describes her time working at the facility, saying, “It was pretty much like one aid to like 50 or 60 residents, one nurse taking over three halls and it was pretty hectic, so you couldn’t get everything accomplished like you needed to.”

She says when she and other workers complained to management about being short-staffed -- nothing changed

State inspectors conduct yearly health and safety inspections of nursing homes to make sure they comply with Medicare and Medicaid regulations.

First Alert 4 obtained the report from the May inspection. The 52-page document included a number of violations:

• “A resident’s catheter bag wasn’t emptied by staff and the urine backed up into his/her bladder.”
• “The facility failed to ensure one resident was free from physical abuse when one resident punched another resident.”
• Licensed practical nurse D entered the room to perform wound care to the resident’s sacrum, did not close the curtains to the window, and staff and residents in the courtyard were visible."

The employee says she is looking for a job and that coworkers are being laid off via text.

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