Hospice Company Speaks Out After Worker Accused Of Stealing From Patient
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A health care company is speaking out after one of their contracted hospice nurses was arrested for stealing from a 79-year old patient.
Regina Cason, 39, is now being held on a $5,000 bond after she admitted to stealing coins, jewelry, a tablet and school supplies from the woman's home, according to her arrest report.
She's been arrested before for petit theft and burglary, but court records show she has never been convicted.
Seasons Hospice, the company who hired her through a staffing agency, said the agency was responsible for conducting background checks.
"Ms. Cason was not a direct employee of Seasons, but rather was contracted through a staffing agency who, as a part of their contracted services, was responsible for performing healthcare background checks in accordance with state and federal law. We had no indication of Ms. Cason's history of arrests," said the statement in part.
The company says they have suspended all staffing through the agency in question and are reviewing other staffing agencies.
"We have immediately suspended all staffing through the agency in question pending a full review of their background check policies in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care holds patient security and safety in the highest regard. We apologize again to the patient and family for this event, and are reviewing our policies and contracts with staffing agencies to do our best to ensure this does not happen again."
The elderly woman's grandson, Jeffrey Fishman, said he and the family feel violated.
"I was in disbelief," Fishman told CBS4's Carey Codd on Monday. "I couldn't believe that this was a professional health care employee."
Fishman said his grandmother wants to spend her remaining time at her Northwest Miami-Dade home so they called the company to take care of her. At first, they said everything went well, but that changed on Monday. They said they called the company and Miami-Dade Police after a family member said she found Cason in the elderly woman's closet and later noticed lots of things missing.
The company says they have apologized to the family who has chosen not to use their services anymore.
"We sincerely apologize to the patient and family for having to deal with this burden during an already stressful time. Our Miami interdisciplinary team reached out to the patient and family to try to resolve this situation and offer our personal apologies. Ultimately the Fishman family decided to not use Seasons going forward, a decision we respect."
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