News 5 Investigators often hear from you, our audience. Many experts have said elderly care is at a "crisis” point in our country. So, we’re kicking off some new nursing home investigations with a local home highlighted by the government.
It was late October of last year when William Richardson was in tears, calling 911. He told them a nursing assistant at Harvard Gardens Rehabilitation and Care Center in Cleveland was trying to harm him.
“They are torturing me,” said Richardson on the 911 call. “Get away from me…look, you trying to hit me. Get away from me!” he continued to say on the call.
He told us the incident still haunts him to this day. “I got PTSD after this,” said Richardson. “This was scary.”
HARVARD GARDENS ON CANDIDATE LIST
We found Harvard Gardens is on the radar of the feds — on a candidate list of Special Focus Facilities, which is a national program to address quality problems and serious noncompliance.
It’s all supposed to hold nursing homes accountable for people like Richardson.
“(The nursing assistant) was walking around like, ‘Yeah, motherfu**er. Talk that sh*t now.’ Slamming the door. ‘Well, you can’t do nothing.’ Cuz, you know, I’m paralyzed,” Richardson said during a recent interview while he was sitting in his wheelchair.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported Harvard Gardens has been on the SFF candidate list for more than 30 months.
Richardson had no idea.
“I think that’s pitiful. I think it’s sad,” said Richardson after we told him about the list.
INSPECTION REPORTS FIND DEFICIENCIES
In 2025, we found inspection reports on Harvard Gardens revealing the home failed to prevent verbal abuse by staff, failed “timely medical intervention,” failed “to serve food in a manner that protects it from contamination” in 2024, and more.
In September of 2024, News 5 was there when the staff picketed and sounded the alarm on Harvard Gardens. “My concern, basically, is our residents. They getting poor care,” said employee Jackie Turner.
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And that federal list that Harvard Gardens is on? Well, the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General reported late last year, “the SFF program is not working…” and does not lead to long-term nursing home improvements.
SO WHAT'S BEING DONE?
What is CMS doing to fix the program? Why are homes on lists for years? Should some facilities be shut down? We wanted to ask those questions and more in an interview with CMS. We never heard anything back. However, we didn’t stop there. We contacted the office of U.S. Congressman Mike Rulli from Ohio. He’s on the House Subcommittee on Health.
He told us the SFF monetary penalties against nursing homes are “misguided,” and he’s introduced legislation for more Medicaid patients getting in-home nursing care -the kind of care that will have a new national quality standard.
The Ohio Department of Health inspects nursing homes and reports its findings to CMS. We asked ODH Director Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff about homes being on the list a long time.
“Is that an effective way to make sure nursing homes are doing what they’re supposed to do if they’re allowed to be on these lists for months on end?” we asked.
Vanderhoff said the SFF enforcement is up to the feds, and the state is taking new action.
“We, under Governor DeWine’s leadership, have created for the first time in the state an arm of the Department of Health that works proactively with nursing homes to help them improve their quality of care,” said Vanderhoff.
The state recently shut down a home in Canton, but at Harvard Gardens, the doors are still open.
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RELATED: Nearly all residents out of problematic nursing home after OH Attorney General asked for shutdown
NEWS 5 INVESTIGATORS ASK FOR ANSWERS
We asked for interviews with the administrator of Harvard Gardens several times and even visited the home to talk. Even though she was in the facility, the director of nursing eventually met with us in the lobby, cited health privacy laws, and said she would check with her corporate leaders and get back to us.
So far, we’ve heard nothing.
We contacted the nursing assistant accused in Richardson’s October complaint of terrible care. She told us she can’t recall the incident.
“So, they have your name and phone number, your address on the police report. And you’re saying you don’t know anything about it?” we asked.
She told us no.
We then asked for an on-camera interview.
“Well, we can come to that house and have you…”
She cut us off right away and said no.
Meanwhile, Richardson has moved to a new nursing home, Crawford Manor Health Care Center, in Cleveland. He said he’s being treated very well there.
About Harvard Gardens, though, he told us he’s a forgiving man, but there is a limit to all of that after what happened to him there. “I’m into God, and we all make mistakes, but that was something that I just can’t let go like that,” said Richardson.
We are not naming the subject in Richardson’s case because she has not been charged with a crime, but we are told the incident has been referred to the Ohio Department of Aging. Her license is still active.
Richardson said he’s looking for legal help for his case against Harvard Gardens.
