Brookdale responds to 911 CPR case

After a week of public backlash and media frenzy, the parent company of a California senior living facility has issued a statement saying the employee who would not perform CPR on a collapsed resident had misinterpreted the company’s policies. “This incident resulted from a complete misunderstanding of our practice with regards to emergency medical care for our residents," Brookdale Senior Living, headquartered in Brentwood, Tenn., said in a statement to the Associated Press late Tuesday.

Earlier this week, the administration at Glenwood Gardens, Bakersfield, Calif., had defended the staffer, who had refused a 911 dispatcher’s pleas to perform CPR on 87-year-old Lorraine Bayless, who later died.

"In the event of a health emergency at this independent living community our practice is to immediately call emergency medical personnel for assistance and to wait with the individual needing attention until such personnel arrives. That is the protocol we followed," explained Jeffrey Toomer, Glenwood Gardens’ executive director, earlier this week.

Brookdale has now clarified that the woman on the 911 call was “serving in the capacity of a resident services director, not a nurse,” according to the Associated Press article. Brookdale also confirmed that Glenwood Gardens’ independent living community does not have medical staff, so the facility is “not licensed to provide medical care to any of its residents.”

The AP report on Brookdale's statement widens the situation involving the policies within the different senior care settings. The corporation has said it plans to re-examine its policies related to “emergency medical care across all of our communities,” the AP reported.

Read the Associated Press story in the Tennessean.

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.