Ohio Department Of Health Finishes Investigation Into Hilty Home Death

1/24/18 – 5:21 A.M.

The Ohio Department of Health has finished its investigation into the death of a 76-year-old woman at the Hilty Home in Pandora. The Lima News reports investigators found Phyllis Campbell spent nearly eight hours in a courtyard outside the nursing home in sub-zero temperatures on January 7. The reports says Campbell was a patient in the facility’s memory care unit, and tried many times to leave.

The investigation found Campbell left her bed around 12:35 a.m. and walked past a propped-open door to the dining room. She entered the courtyard through a door there. An alarm should have sounded for 90 seconds when the door opened. Campbell also wore a “wander guard” device, but it didn’t alert the staff that she had left the building.

Hilty Home has put three state-tested nurses aides and a licensed practical nurse on administrative leave. Two of the nurses aides admitted they didn’t do scheduled checks at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. They did mark the checks as completed in their logs.

Putnam County Sheriff Brian Siefker tells the newspaper his office has also completed its investigation of the incident. They have forwarded their findings to the Putnam County Prosecutor’s Office.

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