One of Iowa’s largest nursing home chains is denying allegations that it fired a nurse in retaliation for her quality-of-care complaints to state regulators.
The chain, Care Initiatives of West Des Moines, is currently facing three separate whistleblower lawsuits stemming from unrelated incidents. The company operates 44 care facilities in Iowa.
In the most recent case, Tina Weber of Clemens states that from May 2021 through October 2024, she worked as a registered nurse at an unspecified Care Initiatives facility in Marshall County.
Weber claims that on Oct. 5, 2024, she witnessed an incident involving a resident with schizophrenia, using a wheelchair, and a human resources worker. According to the lawsuit, the two were engaged in an argument and when the resident attempted to leave in his wheelchair, the human resources worker grabbed the handles of the wheelchair, causing the resident to fall out of the wheelchair to the ground.
Weber reported the incident to the assistant director of nursing and recorded the incident in the resident’s chart. The next day, Weber alleges, the home’s director of nursing texted Weber, writing, “Could you strike out original note and when putting in about the wheelchair say she was assisting with the wheelchair and he put himself on the ground as she tried to de-escalate him and explain that he was not allow to smoke and the policy?”
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