Nursing Home RN Charged With Killing Two Residents: Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry announced on May 25, 2023 criminal charges filed against a western Pennsylvania registered nurse accused of administering lethal doses of unnecessary medication that resulted in the death of two patients and the hospitalization of a third.
Heather Pressdee, 40, of Natrona Heights, was charged on May 24, 2023 with two counts of homicide, a count of attempted murder, a count of aggravated assault, three counts of neglect of a care-dependent person, and three counts of reckless endangerment.
The alleged acts happened at Quality Life Services, a skilled nursing facility in Chicora where Pressdee worked as a registered nurse.
Pressdee is charged with homicide regarding the death of a 55-year-old man and an 83-year-old man. The two men died on December 4, 2022 and December 25, 2022. The third victim, a 73-year-old man, survived after emergency hospitalization. The third victim was administered a potentially-lethal dose of insulin on August 31, 2022. Investigators determined that the victims were under Pressdee’s care when they received overdoses of insulin that caused medical emergencies, and in two cases, death.
Pressdee was taken into custody at her home and was arraigned on the charges on May 24, 2023 and was being held at Butler County Prison without bail. All charges are accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General stated in announcing the criminal charges: “The allegations in this case outline the callous abuse of incredibly vulnerable patients by a professional nurse. As the charges indicate, these were deliberate and intentional acts perpetrated by a care-giver who was trusted to care for these victims. Be assured, my office will zealously pursue justice for the families of those who were killed, as well as the third victim who is fortunate to have survived.”
RNs In Nursing Homes
Federal law requires all nursing homes to provide enough staff to safely care for residents. However, there is no current federal standard for the best nursing home staffing levels. The staffing rating takes into account differences in the levels of residents’ care needs in each nursing home. For example, a nursing home with residents that have more health problems would be expected to have more nursing staff than a nursing home where the residents need less health care.
Medicare makes available the amount of staff turnover at a facility. Low turnover indicates that facilities generally retain their staff for longer periods of time. Lower turnover is preferred because staff who work in facilities for longer periods of time may become more familiar with the residents and the facility’s operating procedures. This can help staff to better understand residents’ preferences and needs, and more readily identify and care for a resident’s condition.
Each nursing home reports daily staffing hours to Medicare. Medicare calculates a ratio of staffing hours per resident day, the percent of nurse staff that stop working at the facility (turnover), and the number of administrators who have left the facility within a given year.
Staffing hours per resident per day is the total number of hours worked by each type of staff divided by the total number of residents. Nurse staff turnover is the percent of nurse staff that stop working at the facility within a given year. Administrator turnover is the number of administrators who have left a facility within a given year. Because these measures are averages, they don’t necessarily show the number of staff present at any given time, or reflect the amount of care given to any one resident.
If you or a loved one may have been injured (or worse) as a result of medical malpractice in a nursing home in Pennsylvania or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a Pennsylvania medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your nursing home medical malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a nursing home medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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