Jim Rosica
A Tallahassee judge on Thursday set the first hearing in the lawsuit lodged by the Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills against the state.
Circuit Judge Jim Shelfer scheduled the hearing for 9 a.m. on Oct. 27 in the Leon County Courthouse, court records show.
The nursing home sued the Agency for Health Care Administration last Tuesday after Gov. Rick Scott ordered the agency to cut off Medicaid payments and carry out a moratorium on patient admissions.
Eleven residents now are dead after Hurricane Irma knocked out the facility’s air conditioning.
Debate continues over whether the home’s administrators acted properly. The first eight residents died Sept. 13, three days after the climate control went down. Other residents were evacuated.
In the lawsuit, the home’s attorneys argue the facility followed emergency-preparedness plans in the way it handled the air conditioning outage.
Also, the lawsuit alleges that the Scott administration violated the facility’s due-process rights.
— Ed. Note: This story first appeared Thursday night in the “Last Call” newsletter. Background from the News Service of Florida, reprinted with permission.
