Assisted Living Facility Administrator Arrested For Neglect And Operating without A License

Attorney General of Florida, Aug 23, 2007

Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced the arrest of Fannie Finkley, owner of a Pensacola-based assisted living facility, on charges of neglect and operating a facility without a license. Finkley allegedly neglected one of the facility’s residents and had no operating license for the facility. She was arrested by investigators from the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit with assistance from the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office.

According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, Finkley violated the quality of care and sanitary standards at the Loving Care Retirement Center and surrendered her operating license in July of 2005. She then obtained a license to operate a boarding house, but continued to operate the facility as if it were a fully-operational assisted living facility (ALF). Medicaid Fraud investigators observed staff members actively gathering and dispensing medications, a responsibility assumed by ALFs, not boarding houses.

Residents who were interviewed by investigators with the Department of Children and Families said that they gave Finkley their monthly income checks and she would give them back a small monthly allowance as is typical of assisted living facilities. Finkley also continued to offer daily care and supervision services for elderly residents at Loving Care, but investigators believe at least one resident suffered neglect under Finkley’s care. The resident was taken to the hospital and was declared to be in serious condition resulting from dehydration, new onset diabetes, contracted limbs, and a serious ulcer, among other problems. Medical staff at the hospital presumed that neglect was the most likely cause of the resident’s condition.

Finkley is currently being held at the Escambia County Jail under one count of operating an assisted living facility without a license and one count of elder neglect, both third-degree felonies. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison and fines up to $10,000. The case will be prosecuted by the State Attorney’s Office in the First Judicial Circuit.