FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FOR MORE INFORMATION:

June 23, 2017 Christine Miller, Executive Director

(360) 479-4747

The follow ing statem ent w as issued today from Christine Miller, Executive Director at Forest
Ridge Health and Rehabilitation Center:

At Forest Ridge Health and Rehab, our dedicated team is privileged to care for a variety of
residents with varying levels of independence and multiple diagnoses and care needs. We strive
to provide a safe home for everyone who resides here.

As is required by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we immediately
reported this particular incident to the State Department of Health Services Division of Quality
Assurance. We cooperated fully with their investigation of the incident, as well as conducted
our own internal review. We realized areas for improvement and immediately enhanced our
building security and provided further education for our staff both on building safety and
providing respiratory assessments. As a result, our center is currently in full regulatory
compliance.

Due to state and federal patient confidentiality laws, we cannot discuss specific information
as it relates to this former resident and the diagnoses; however, we can tell you that our team
was close with this long term resident, and we were honored to provide care to this resident for
many years. Our deepest sympathies and condolences have gone out to the residents family
and friends, and we continue to keep them in our thoughts.

While we understand improvements can always be made to the care we provide,

Washingtons skilled nursing community is seeing unprecedented civil monetary penalties and
deficiencies being levied against long term care providers. In July 2016, CMS issued guidance
that encouraged an increase in deficiencies and civil monetary penalties across the nation.
Washingtons long term care community quickly began seeing a marked increase in civil
monetary penalties resulting in enormous fines, such as this. We encourage anyone to discuss
this and learn more from the Washington Health Care Association.

We care deeply for each individual who entrusts us to care for them and are proud of our
team members who provide quality, dignified care each and every day in our center.

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140 S Marion Ave Bremerton WA, 98312 (360) 479-4747