Class Action Filed in North Carolina Over Alleged ‘Chronic Understaffing’ at Citadel Salisbury Nursing Home

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A proposed class action claims the Citadel nursing home in Salisbury, North Carolina has been plagued by chronic understaffing and failed to deliver on the contractual promises made to residents and their families.

The 79-page case alleges the skilled nursing facility and adult care home’s myriad issues, which include supply shortages, slow response times, residents not receiving required medications, and ”atrocious” food, were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Citadel became the site of one of the worst outbreaks of the disease in North Carolina, with virtually all residents having contracted the virus.

Aside from the alleged staffing issues, the lawsuit claims the defendants have failed to provide written resident agreements in which their terms of service are described despite being required to do so under North Carolina law.

The case alleges that if the defendants had properly disclosed “the true state of affairs” within the Citadel when they bought the facility in February 2020, residents and their caretakers would have “sought to obtain state intervention, sought relocation, or taken other action in an effort to protect themselves and other residents.” Instead, the plaintiffs and proposed class members reasonably relied to their detriment on the defendants’ representations of the staffing, standard of care, and resources that would be provided to residents, and were damaged thereby.

The lawsuit claims the understaffing and lack of supplies at the Citadel were not caused by the pandemic itself but “by the owners’ business model” implemented in their take-over of the Salisbury facility. According to the suit, the entity’s two owners, who are named as defendants in the case, have a history of using “reckless cost-cutting measures” that have led to the majority of their facilities being ranked with only one or two stars by the official U.S. Government CMS Nursing Home Compare regulatory entity. Per the case, data have shown that other facilities owned by the two individual defendants have, during the past several years, consistently “dominate[d] the list of worst-staffed facilities in North Carolina,” long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. 

Not long after the Citadel was purchased in February 2020, it became apparent that the individual defendants “had grown their upstart new chain too fast and cut costs too much,” resulting in nursing staff having to work in “chaotic conditions” as more and more staff began to quit, the lawsuit says.

“These events occurred at the Citadel in February 2020 before the advent of COVID-19 at the Facility, nor can Defendants blame COVID-19 for their actions,” the complaint scathes.

Because of the conditions already present at the Citadel facility, “it is no surprise,” the case contends, that the center became the site of “one of the earliest and largest COVID-19 outbreaks at any congregate care setting in North Carolina.” Per the case, management’s handling of the pandemic was “so poor and so chaotic” that it became the subject of multiple news reports and testing by the local hospital and health department.

The plaintiffs, two residents of the Citadel facility and their caretakers, claim that despite promising to provide “5-Star Service” after purchasing the nursing home, the defendants have consistently failed to provide critical medications to residents at the appropriate times; tracked when medications needed to be refilled and when they arrived at the facility; provide acceptable food, water and nourishment; respond to residents’ needs in a timely manner; and wear personal protective equipment. 

According to the suit, the issues stem from the defendants’ chronic failure to adequately staff the Citadel nursing home as promised. Despite having the financial resources to provide adequate staffing, the defendants’ “negligent, reckless, and intentional” for-profit business model was intended to cut costs and reduce staff to the absolute minimum—a fact that was not disclosed to residents and their families, the lawsuit says.

Per the case, the defendants’ “unfair and deceptive representations,” including promises on their website to provide “exceptional” care, “fresh, flavorful” food and top-of-the-line amenities, have misled proposed class members and caused them to pay for or allocate Medicare and Medicaid benefits toward services that were not actually provided. From the complaint:

The lawsuit, which names as defendants The Citadel Salisbury LLC; Salisbury Two NC Propco, LLC; Accordius Health LLC; and The Portopiccolo Group, LLC, looks to represent individuals who have been residents or sponsors of residents at the Citadel Salisbury facility at any time since February 1, 2020.

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