Assisted living worker fired for falsifying patient records

A worker at an assisted living center was fired recently after being accused of falsely documenting that he had provided residents with their medication.

State records indicate Jacob B. Patterson worked as a medical assistant for Midwest Homestead of Mason City, operator of the Homestead Assisted Living Center of Mason City, from August 2021 through February 2024 when he was fired.

Patterson subsequently applied for unemployment and collected $2,926 in benefits from the state before Homestead appealed the matter. That led to a recent hearing before Administrative Law Judge Duane Golden.

According to Golden’s April 26 decision, Homestead conducted an investigation of Patterson’s conduct shortly before he was terminated and found that he had falsely documented giving patients their medications on Feb. 8, 2024. The drugs in question were found, still in their original packaging, after Feb. 8, the home alleged.

Homestead reviewed Patterson’s personnel records and reportedly found that he had previously been warned about “medication errors” four times in 2023 — on March 2, March 29, May 10 and July 15. Due to the prior warnings, the company fired Patterson.

After finding there was “substantial and credible evidence that (Patterson) falsified medication-administration records after having been warned,” Golden ruled Patterson was ineligible for unemployment benefits.

Patterson will not have to repay the benefits already collected as those payouts were due to a procedural error by the state in making the initial determination of eligibility.