GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - 11 former caregivers at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans are being charged with felonies for allegedly falsely reporting that they did room checks on residents when they actually did not.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette announced the charges Monday morning. All 11 are charged with Intentional Inclusion in Patient Medical Records or Charts of Misleading or Inaccurate Information. The felony charge carries a possibility of up to four years in prison and or a $5,000 fine.
The 11 charged are:
- Tyisha Toliver, 40, of Grand Rapids - Four counts
- Doris Penny, 59, of Grand Rapids - Three counts
- Eric Anderson 59, of Holland - One count
- Jasmine Ferrer, 27, of Wyoming - One count
- Cary Gerencer, 52, of Sand Lake - One count
- Sheryl Hillyer, 62, of Lansing - One count
- Lolitta Jackson, 39, of Grand Rapids - One count
- Emina Kahriman, 53, of Grand Rapids - Two counts
- Michelle Longmire, 49, of Muskegon - One count
- Roconda Singleton, 39, of Grand Rapids - One count
- Sequoyah Thomas, 23, of Grand Rapids - One count
Anyone aware of misconduct at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans is encouraged to report it to Attorney General Schuette’s Health Care Fraud Division by calling 800-24-ABUSE.
Schuette says that the investigation began after an Auditor General report in February 2016 about operations and conditions at the home. The home is managed by the State of Michigan.
The Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency has responded that all 11 employees were certified nursing assistants (CENA) that had been provided by a former contractor, J2S. The home stopped using J2S on October 1, 2016. The state audit came out in February of 2016.
“Since February 2016, everyone at MVAA and the Michigan Veterans Health System has been working very hard to address all findings of the audit, and substantial progress has been made,” Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency Director James Robert Redford said in the statement.
The MVAA says that since then, the home has increased staffing and instituted other checks and reports by each assistant director of nursing.
We'll have more on later editions of FOX 17 News.
