The New Mexico Aging and Long-Term Services Department has entered into a settlement agreement with Cathedral Rock Corp. after a nursing-home administrator was accused of interfering with patient access to a state ombudsman and criticizing employees for contacting the state office.

Cathedral Rock operates 10 nursing facilities in New Mexico, including Santa Fe Care Center and Casa Real in Santa Fe.

The settlement involves actions at Sunshine Haven Nursing Home in Lordsburg and Silver City Care Center in southwest New Mexico.

The Texas-based Cathedral Rock has paid $4,000 in fines to the state as part of the agreement, according to a news release from Emily Kaltenbach of the Aging and Long-Term Services Department.

Notices of violation were issued in December 2009 after the state Long-Term Care Ombudsman learned of a plan for inappropriate resident discharges and transfers. "Ombudsman staff also learned that nursing-home employees had been wrongly led to believe that the ombudsman had been notified, and were in support of the resident moves, both of which were inaccurate," according to Kaltenbach.

"Following ombudsman involvement to have the moves canceled, facility senior staff publicly demeaned the role of ombudsmen as an oversight agency and publicly criticized facility staff thought to have contacted the ombudsmen," Kaltenbach said.

In addition to the $4,000 fine, corporate managers of Cathedral Rock issued an apology to Sunshine Haven Nursing Home employees for inappropriate and unprofessional behavior. Corporate representatives also agreed that senior staff would attend an ombudsmen volunteer certification training, nursing home staff would attend an on-site resident-rights training, and ombudsman staff would be introduced on-site by Cathedral Rock corporate representatives.

The State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program is mandated by federal and state law to investigate resident complaints at long-term care facilities.

"The advocacy for residents provided by the State's Long-Term Care Ombudsman is an essential aspect of the state's zero-tolerance policy against abuse and neglect, and exploitation. Interference with the Ombudsman Program will not be tolerated," said Aging and Long-Term Services Department Secretary Michael Spanier.

Also quoted in the release is state Long-Term Care Ombudsman Sondra Everhart, who has a long-term partnership with Gail Kaplan, the administrator at Casa Real nursing home in Santa Fe. Everhart is not supposed to be involved with any decisions concerning Cathedral Rock, according to Spanier, who was interviewed about the relationship for a story published in The New Mexican on March 5.

"We are encouraged by the cooperative attitude and resident-supportive actions by Cathedral Rock Corporate staff," Everhart said in the Tuesday news release.

Cathedral Rock, a privately held company owned by C. Kent Harrington, is under increased scrutiny after a six-year investigation in Missouri into criminal and civil allegations made by former nursing-home employees. The company agreed to pay $1 million in fines to settle claims that it failed to provide adequate care to residents. Cathedral Rock also agreed to abide by a Corporate Integrity Agreement, which is monitored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.