Nursing Home Employees Back To Work Following Sex Assault Claim
SOUTHGATE (WWJ) - About five or six black employees are back on the job Thursday after being suspended with pay from a Southgate nursing home on sexual assault allegations.
Reggie Hartsfield with Advantage Management Group, which runs Southgate Manor, said a female resident claimed she was sexually assaulted by a black man.
Hartsfield said they followed procedure and sent home any employee who fit the resident's vague description and had contact with her.
As for allegations that what they did was racial profiling: "As a black male I understand how that feels and what that looks like, but as a nursing home administrator, as a health care professional, we also have to following the regulations that we are provided with," said Hartsfield. "And it's all about keeping the residents safe."
Hartsfield told WWJ Newsradio 950's Zahra Huber he could not comment on the investigation but he's confident that the residents are not at risk.
"In a our industry we deal with a lot of frail and elderly people and some with cognitive issues like dementia and (conditions of that) nature. Sometimes they make allegations that are not real but we, as healthcare professionals, we have to investigate every allegation no matter what," he said.
The employees were back 24 hours later.
