CHARLESTON – A Kanawha County nurse says employees of a St. Albans nursing home to falsify medical records after she complained about improper staffing levels.
Michelle Peters filed her complaint against Savaseniorcare Administrative Services LLC, St. Albans Operating Company LLC doing business as Riverside Health and Rehabilitation Center and Tawnya Halstead. The defendants filed a motion to dismiss.
According to the complaint, Peters began working at Riverside in 2018 as a licensed practical nurse. She says the facility was not staffed to meet the needs of the residents, thus endangering the residents and other employees. She said she made numerous complaints to Halstead, her supervisor. But, she says the defendants failed to investigate or respond to her complaints.
Peters claims the defendants failed to provide prescribed pain medication to residents, saying other nurses were stealing the medications. She says the defendants asked her to falsify medical records, but she refused.
Peters, who is a black woman above the age of 40, says she also complained that she did not receive proper payment, but the defendants refused to pay her the promised amounts. She says she was told she would receive an hourly of $21.50, but she instead received only $21 per hour. She also was told she’d be paid time and a half for overtime, but she didn’t always receive the proper rate.
In November 2018, Peters says she was left with no alternative but to quit her job at Riverside.
“Peters feared that her nursing license would be in jeopardy if she continued to work under the described conditions,” the complaint states.
Peters accuses the defendants of failing to pay her properly, which resulted in loss of earned wages, loss of use of her earned money, financial hardship and emotional distress.
She also accuses the defendants of retaliation for voicing her concerns about patient safety, which is a violation of the West Virginia Patient Safety Act. She says that has caused her to suffer lost wages and benefits as well as indignity, embarrassment and humiliation.
Peters seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interest and other relief.
In the motion to dismiss, the defendants say Peters agreed to an Employment Dispute Resolution Program that requires any disagreements concerning employment shall be settled by arbitration.
She is being represented by Charles M. Love IV of The Love Law Firm in Charleston. The defendants are being represented by Anders Lindberg and Andrew Smith of Steptoe Johnson in Huntington. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Charles King.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 20-C-305
