A new director has taken over the Georgia War Veterans Home in Milledgeville after her predecessor resigned amid growing concerns about the quality of care given to the facility's elderly and frail residents.
Dennis Mize, 70, had planned to retire at the end of the year after working at the facility for more than a dozen years, but the company that runs the state home asked him to leave early, according to people familiar with the situation.
This comes after an investigation by The Current GA revealed a series of systemic problems at the facility that seven current and former employees who work directly in patient care said were impacting many of the facility's approximately 150 residents.
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STGi has not publicly announced any leadership changes and did not respond to questions about new administrator Jessica Searcy's qualifications or work history. State officials overseeing the veterans home also did not respond to requests for comment about the transition or the new director.
The Current previously reported that STGi has struggled to retain staff and maintain standards outlined in the Milledge Building operating agreement since contracting with the state in 2023. For example, nurses in the facility's memory care unit were frequently reassigned to other floors, leaving the most vulnerable residents without caregivers with the appropriate level of training. In addition, a nurse without a dispensing license administered psychotropic drugs to an agitated resident without permission from the attending physician.
Since these findings were first published, additional medical experts familiar with the Milledgeville facility spoke to The Current and described what they called other concerns. An example of this is a situation where a hospice care resident is not receiving the necessary medication prescribed due to STGi charting and electronic record management issues. They said the months-long issue has been largely resolved, but it underscores the perception among many current and former staff at the facility that STGi lacks experience running nursing homes.
Some medical staff, including Mize, who reported these and other issues to management said they were removed from their jobs or pressured to quit. None of the employees who spoke to The Current were reluctant to discuss the records for fear of retaliation by STGi and requested anonymity.
The company, which operates VA clinics in multiple states, had no experience with skilled nursing or memory care facilities before the state awarded the Milledgeville contract. It currently operates veterans homes in two other states.
Georgia Department of Veterans Services Director Patricia Ross previously told The Current that she could not comment on STGi's performance and said she was preparing a new request for proposals to manage the facility, citing the state's procurement procedures that prohibit the appearance of bias. Ross also noted that annual inspections by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the state found no systemic causes for concern at the Milledgeville facility.
In the past two weeks, since The Current article was published, veterans groups across the state have written and lobbied state leaders to address deficiencies at the Milledgeville home.
Georgia is home to nearly 700,000 veterans, but it has fewer nursing homes for veterans than surrounding states and spends less on elderly and infirm veterans than other states, according to the National Veterans Home Association.
More importantly, the state does not demand the highest standards of care, according to Navy League Golden Isles County President Glynn Cook Jr., who was named Golden Isle Veteran of the Year. “Milledgeville is in shambles because of bad contracts and bad management,” Cook said. “As a Navy veteran, that's tough. Research shows the state is neglecting the basics.”
Retired Gen. Robert Magnus, a St. Simons Island resident and Georgia's highest-ranking military veteran, sent a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp and Lt. Gov. Bert Jones requesting an investigation into what he called “abuse” by veterans working in the state's health care. Mr. Magnus was part of the executive committee that investigated Water Lead Army Medical Center in 2007 and 2008 after reports of harmful medical practices surfaced.
When asked last week what should be done to improve the service at the facility. State Rep. Homer “Buddy” DeLoach, a U.S. Army veteran who represents parts of McIntosh, Long and Glynn counties and serves on the Defense and Veterans Affairs Committee, said the governor's office needs to intervene. Veterans homes are under the jurisdiction of the executive branch, not the legislature, and the governor and his board members “don't have the power to go and tell those guys, the contractors, or the people who are overseeing them, to do anything,” he said.
Mr Mize, a former Milledgeville director, had worked at the home since 2013 for both his previous management company and STGi. Before that, he worked at a state psychiatric hospital that was closed as the U.S. Department of Justice investigated allegations of neglect and abuse of patients.
Milledge Building's new director told employees and residents' families that she was hired to help solve the problem. She took over for a week before Mr. Mize quit his job, people familiar with the situation said.
It is unclear why the transfer was not announced. Mr. Searcy did not respond to requests for an interview about his past work history or his goals for his new job. The person with the same name earned a nursing home administrator license in Georgia in 2020 and interned at the Lillian G. Carter Nursing Center in Plains, one of the state's most highly rated nursing homes.
Mr. Searcy's first instructions included having his staff sign non-disclosure agreements, people familiar with the matter said. He also instituted a new visitation policy that requires approval from the state agency that oversees facilities and veterans affairs before anyone other than a resident's family is allowed to visit.
Craig Nelson contributed to this report.
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