Euthanasia, The Franchise
February 13, 2007 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
The story sounds more like a hollywood franchise than an eldercare franchise:
Visiting Angels… of Death!
In its post* Caregiver Faces Charges in Death of Client, Daily Franchise News quotes from an article in the Clovis Independent:
Caretaker faces murder charges in death of woman, 85,” Urelda Pricilla Stovall was found dead after receiving a toxic amount of morphine and methadone from her caregiver, Kelly Renee Jones who worked for the company Visiting Angels.
The franchise company seemed quick to (attempt to) distance itself from the franchise location in question. DFN states:
The nationwide franchisor provides non-medical, home-care services to the elderly. Caretakers clean, cook, run errands and provide hygiene assistance. Dave Plank, Visiting Angels’ director of business development, claims that the Fresno-based office is no longer affiliated with the national organization.
As we’ve mentioned recently in other posts, franchisors deem certain actions to be grounds for termination of a franchise agreement. Killing your customers is likely one of those actions, though that wasn’t made clear in the article. The company claimed they started severing ties with the Fresno franchise in October, 2006.
Detective Joe Alvarado believes it was a mercy killing:
“Throughout the entire investigation I felt so,” he said. “[The suspect] really had nothing to gain financially by killing her … I think she just got close to her and figured she should be taken out of her misery.”
The employee, Kelly Renee Jones, faces 25 years to life if a jury finds her guilty of first-degree murder.
LEAVE A COMMENT: WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS TOPIC?
* Editor’s note: The owner of Visiting Angels disputes several of the allegations in this piece. They were contacted regarding providing a written rebuttal and elected not to respond.
______________________________________________
Get the truth about franchising at FranBest.com.
Build your business through Relentless Promotional Marketing: Relentless Marketer.
This story is tragic, but don’t fault the agency or anyone else that happens to work for them.
I am affiliated with agency in PA. We are screened
and a bckgrouond check is done on each employee.
The majority of us ar dedcatied to the best of care for our clients.
It is absolutey wrong to group everyone under what
one crazy person has done.
Give us a a fair break!!!
Lulu’s Mama:
You all work under the same name and trademark because you want to benefit from shared name recognition and the positive image of the company, correct? If someone says: We just moved from California and we LOVED Visiting Angels there, would you point out that you are separate and they shouldn’t think highly of you because the franchisees in CA are good? So when the news is positive, you want to be all grouped together, but not when it’s negative? It doesn’t work that way.
But to tell you the truth, I have a different, more complicated view of this story since I posted it. In that time, my mother has gone into a hospice program and is under 24 hour home care from a live-in caregiver. After living this system since March, I can tell you that there’s a whole lot more systemized euthanasia going on than Kelly Renee Jones’ misdeed.
Obviously this has nothing to do with what agency this caregiver is working for. You can’t generalize and say that the caregivers of Visiting Angels would do this. That’s like saying all blacks are thiefs and murders. Give me a break!
Get Real Do you know of other cases where the in-home caregivers from other agencies were charged with euthanizing their patients?
These agencies are in the business of supplying professionals to care for chronic or terminally ill patients. Are they equipped to do so? Do they provide psychological testing and/or the training and supervision required to keep these staff members from committing crimes like this?
So do all murderers’ affiliations be come guilty by association? If a McDonald’s fry cook kills 10 or 12 people are all their fry cooks murderers too? It sounds like you think they solicited to find a killer.
It depends on how he killed them: With the Big Macs or the Quarter Pounders?
I don’t think they solicited to find a killer. I think they failed to screen out a killer. OR, they failed to train a compassionate person in how to handle the process of suffering and death without euthanizing the person you’re being paid to care for.
These services are promoting themselves as experts in eldercare. Shouldn’t they be responsible for providing the services they claim they provide: professional, experienced care by screened and trained professionals?
Why do you defend this? Are you a Kevorkian Kare franchisee?
I used to own a Visiting Angels franchise and the national company is a fine, upstanding organization. Caregivers are not permitted to administer medications and was clearly communicated to our employees. This caregiver was acting on her own and took matters in her own hand.
It would be nice if we had magic wand to pass over every person we hired to determine their character, but I don’t know of one existing. I doubt that this caregiver had any indicators to screen her out (we also ran criminal background checks on all caregivers). Also, many companies will not give referrals for former employees because of fear of lawsuits. If you note in the article, there was no mention of criminality being charged against Visiting Angels, just the caregiver. If they could be implicated, they would have been.
John It would be nice if we had magic wand to pass over every person we hired to determine their character, but I don’t know of one existing. I doubt that this caregiver had any indicators to screen her out (we also ran criminal background checks on all caregivers).
It would be nice if a man didn’t arrive at his mother’s house in the morning to find the caregiver drunk and his mother in bed with a utensil drawer on top of her and a lethal dose of morphine and methadone in her veins.
It would be nice if someone had called the caregivers sister to ask “Hey, has Sis been a heroin addict for 20 years or so?”
Magic wands might not be available, but telephones are. So are drug tests.
It is Visiting Angels policy screen its employees. We did criminal and drug screenings as well as calling references. I even asked references for other people they knew that I might ask.
You referred to the sister knowing something about the caregiver as well as something about a drawer. What article are you reading? I didn’t read anything about that in the article posted.
However, lets assume you have read other articles, did the caregiver give her sister as a reference? Did the sister tell the truth? Many family members will lie for their family and I have learned you can’t trust them. In fact, we required at least 4 non-family references.
What this caregiver did was wrong and in a perfect world she never would have been given the opportunity, but you haven’t convinced me that Visiting Angels did anything negligent. If she wasn’t screened at all, or was instructed to administer medicine the agency violated the requirements of the national organization. IF that is the case, that was why the national organization was severing ties.
Also, you seem to be taking this personally. Was it your mother who was killed?
John:
You know what I take personally? The fact that you are in this business and you DON’T take it personally. Lulus Mama, Get Real, and Mickey all say no one’s to blame. Do you blame all fry cooks if a fry cook kills someone? says Mickey.
You guys aren’t fry cooks. You aren’t marketing yourself as “Visiting Minimally Screened Potential Drug Users” or “Hopefully Not Harmful Potential Psychopaths” You market yourselves as “Visiting Angels.” “Comfort Keepers” “Touching Hearts At Home.”
It’s disturbing that professional “Angels” such as yourselves aren’t outraged when your colleagues put our parents’ lives at the mercy of drunken drug addicts.
You’ll be screaming bloody murder when the government steps in and starts regulating in-home caregivers. Your lack of outrage will be to blame when that happens.
_____________________________
Here’s the article I referenced, and here are some excerpts, below.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/10/05/2994229.htm
“During the murder trial, George Stovall testified that he drove to his mother’s home that day about 8:30 a.m. He said he found a drunk and stumbling Jones inside. His mother had a kitchen drawer lying on top of her…”
“More than five times the amount of morphine needed to be fatal was found in Stovall’s blood along with methadone, a drug used to treat heroin addiction.”
“Police found traces of methadone and Xanax, an antidepressant, in Jones’ blood. Jones’ sister Pamela Ochoa testified during the criminal trial that Jones has been a heroin addict for 20 years.”
“Oren said George Stovall was referred to Visiting Angels Living Assisted Services through a hospice program.”
Visiting Angels National says they’re not to blame – they were no longer a franchise.
The local agency wasn’t to blame – they say she was an independent contractor.
“Everybody’s running for cover. It’s turned into a shell game. The question is, who has some responsibility here?” Oren said. “This really seems to be a situation where this person should have never been put in this type of job…”
“‘How does a drug addict with a known history of drug abuse end up caring for someone’s elderly mother? What kind of background checks did they do? It’s a complete violation of trust.’”
First off, this is a very sad case. But you have to keep things in perspective, the elderly lady was dying. She still shouldn’t have been killed and that is a matter for the courts to decide. When you deal with people who are dying you gain a perspective that others may not have. It is not callousness and I do sympathize for the family who lost her mother. The stress of caring for someone who is in pain and dying is considerable. This caregiver should not have been put in the situation if she did not have to ability to handle the situation. Was it the agency’s fault? I don’t know. Did the caregiver inform them that she could not handle a dying client?
You think us callous, but what we were responding to was your conclusion to associate this caregivers actions with all Visiting Angels, even all agencies (Comfort Keepers, etc). Your conclusion is about as logical as blaming all caregivers.
As a former owner of a Visiting Angels Franchise I know the training the national organization gives and it is comprehensive and emphasizes background checks and checking references. The people I know who own these businesses take great pride in what they do and loathe hiring someone who may make their agency look bad. They have too much invested personally and financially not to take great care in who they hire.
The nature of drug addiction is that people will try to hide it and keep it secret. Unless this caregiver had an arrest record she may have been able to keep her addiction a secret from all but her sister. Without knowing more, it is impossible to judge. I personally find Oren’s (the prosecuter) words irresponsible and think he is trying to try the case in the court of public opinion.
Have you ever been responsible for hiring people? You have to take the references that they give you, and most likely those people have been cherry picked to give good references. It is a skill to get a person to give a friend of theirs honest evaluations. Many businesses will only give hire and term dates for former employees. Screening is not as easy as you might think.
The caregiving agency business has thin profit margins. It is financially impossible for them to hire a private investigator for every new hire.
I think your outrage at the agency is mis-directed without evidence of wrongdoing on their part. I also think it is very odd that the family is only suing for $25K. They can’t be very outraged if that is all they are asking. I think deep down they feel the caregiver did their mother a favor by ending her suffering. I think their outrage is that the caregiver medicated herself after she euthanised their mother.
First off, this is a very sad case. But you have to keep things in perspective, the elderly lady was dying.
The fact that you think this relevant is very disturbing. The “Angel” was drunk at 8:30 in the morning, had narcotics in her system, was a 20 yr heroin addict, put a drawer of utensils on a woman who gave birth and sacrificed her whole life for the man who was paying the agency for the service described in the brochure and on the website. What possible significance does the length of time she has left have on the horrendousness of this crime.
I’ve hired and managed people for 20 years. I agree completely that it’s easy to make mistakes. That’s why I wouldn’t accept money for placing the lives of others in the hands of uncertain and dubious individuals. If the margins are too thin for thorough quality control, then it’s not a viable business model and only an idiot or a completely callous person would do it for long.
I don’t buy it. I know franchised maid services that have better quality control, who never would have let this woman clean a house drunk, much less be in a position to administer morphine.
Your assumption that the amount they are suing for indicates their level of outrage is also creepy. No offense, but I’m glad you’re a “former” franchisee and hope you’re in a new line of work, like, say, mortuary science.
Do a few searches and you’ll find stories of several “Visiting Angels” having done other outrageous things, including bilking those in their care out of their homes and life savings. If Visiting Angels is the fine, upstanding franchise corporation you claim – and I have no reason to believe it’s not – then I’m really frightened. Imagine what the not-so-upstanding ones are capable of.
You are distorting my comments, but good luck to you and I hope your mom is doing better.
I want to update my last comment. I re-read your earlier post about your mom being in hospice care. I assume by now she has passed. I am sorry for your loss.
John:
Two days ago would have been my mother’s 83rd birthday. Yesterday would have been my parents’ 63rd wedding anniversary. She died at September 10 at home, under the care of a home hospice worker with my sister and father by her side.
Or experience with our home care providers was excellent. She was like a part of the family, was both professional and caring and her short involvement made a lasting impact on all of us. Unfortunately, so did Kelly Renee Jones.
My six month education (which took place after this story was posted) spanned hospital care, nursing home care, home care, and both in-hospital and in-home hospice. It was an eye-opener… and a very disturbing education. We had 5 very diligent, educated and demanding siblings there to scrutinize, discuss and supervise the process, options and decisions every step of the way. We were at acclaimed suburban healthcare facilities. Still, it was a battle every step of the way. God help the people who do not have someone around to be there, press the call button, monitor the care.
John, I’m not distorting, but interpreting. I worked at a geriatric home and had home care franchise clients. It’s common, maybe necessary, that workers become less sensitized to the deaths of the patients. The economics are indeed difficult – a huge amount of money to most families is still low wages for what’s required.
To me, that means there needs to be a highly effective screening and supervisory and quality control system that’s not there. I think this industry is going to go through what the Funeral industry went through years back.
I’m not picking on Visiting Angels alone… I think it’s an industrywide issue. But when you market yourselves as Angels and boast at how fast you are growing and how you’re selling hundreds of franchises, be ready when the knock at the door turns out to be the 60 Minutes camera crew.
“To me, that means there needs to be a highly effective screening and supervisory and quality control system that’s not there.”
I agree with you and Visiting Angels teaches the necessity of being diligent, but the deck is stacked against employers. First, you have to trust the references given and try to ferret out issues from people who have been picked to give good references. I was successfully able to ferret out several candidates by asking the right questions from their cherry picked references. However, some less than stellar people got through and we had to deal with it afterwards. Fortunately, I never was in a situation this bad. Second, HIPAA laws prevent mental health organizations and drug treatment centers from sharing relevant infomation about their clients. Their should be a way for healthcare companies to search a list from drug treatment centers and mental health instituions to see if their potential caregivers have issues, but it is guarded information per HIPAA rules. Third, many former employers will not give relevant information on former employees for fear of lawsuits. Thankfully you can still run criminal background checks (lets hope the ACLU doesn’t prevent this in the future) and perform drug screenings (but these can be cheated if the person can stay off the drugs for the testing period). Perhaps we need reform or a special dispensation for healthcare companies that allows them to obtain the information they need.
Again, I am sorry for your loss. I lost my mother at 83 on Easter Sunday or 2007. Fortunately, her illness was not long and I was able to be with her. She also had proper pain and sedative medications available and administered by qualified personnel.
I agree with you that it is important for family members to be involved in their loved ones care. No one cares for them like you do. However, homecare does have a better track record than nursing homes when it comes to providing quality care.
Back to our case. Where was hospice in all this? Did they not provide the pain treatment needed to help this lady through her last days? Most have pain patches that can be administered by a hospice nurse when there is not a qualified person available to administer meds.
I agree with you that no son should find his mother in the shape that this lady was in, nor find the caregiver not in command of her senses. However, I think the sheriff got it right that it was a mercy killing. That doesn’t make it right. We don’t know if the caregiver was drugged before (truly outrageous behavior) she euthanized the lady or after (stupid way to cope with the grief). We don’t know if the lady begged the caregiver to end her suffering. I have been there and it rips your heart out to have someone beg you to end their suffering. I don’t think you can be fully human and watch a person suffer from a fatal disease and not want to take matters in your own hand. It is one of the most difficult situations caregivers face. However, I do fault the caregiveing agency if they did not inform the caregiver to call them or hospice if the situation became more than she could handle.
John, I’m interested in your business experience with visiting angels and why you no longer have the business…………….
Dear John,
I would also like to know about your experience with Visiting Angels franchise.
I’m sorry folks, this is not one of my favorite subjects, I have a dear friend who is a Visiting Nurse, who would DIE first before she harmed one of her patients.
John, the way you talk about that poor women, reminded me of the way people talk about putting a pet to sleep-that is indeed creepy. She was murdered not “euthanized”
Sean is right, everyone in that industry needs to be as outraged about what happened.