Nursing home worker was needlessly exposed to contagious disease, judge rules

A social worker for an Iowa nursing home was justified in quitting after the facility failed to inform her and others of residents who had serious, contagious diseases, according to a judge’s ruling.

State records indicate Mary Lovejoy Castaneda was employed by the nursing home chain Care Initiatives as a fulltime social worker at Cedar Rapids’ Heritage Specialty Care from March through May of this year. She resigned after citing “stress and anxiety” related to the job, which entailed working with hospice patients.

Castaneda also cited concerns regarding an unsafe work environment created by the facility failing to share information about residents with serious contagious diseases. Twice during the week of May 5, 2024, Castaneda interacted with residents by sharing paperwork and pens with them without first being informed by the nursing staff that the residents had a contagious illness.

In one instance, a member of the nursing staff allegedly encountered Castaneda as she exited a resident’s room and expressed surprise that Castaneda wasn’t wearing personal protect equipment. When Castaneda pointed out that the nursing staff had not posted the required notice that the resident had a contagious disease, the nursing staff member allegedly replied that the staff had forgotten to post such a notice.

Castaneda subsequently resigned and applied for unemployment benefits. Care Initiatives challenged the request, which led to a recent hearing before Administrative Law Judge James Timberland.

In his ruling, Timberland stated that the company’s lack of notice regarding residents with contagious diseases prevented Castaneda from using appropriate personal protective equipment and “unreasonably exposed (her) to the risk of contracting serious illnesses.”

Timberland also noted that when Care Initiatives hired Castaneda the company assured her it would refrain from assigning her hospice patients, only to later begin doing so. That action “suggests a bait-and-switch whereby the employer waited for (Castaneda) to adjust to the work environment and then substantially changed the nature of the work.”

Timberland awarded Castaneda unemployment benefits, ruling that she had quit her job for good cause.