Facility’s failure to provide adequate supervision during outing resulted in resident’s death.

The owner of a personal care home organized a river tubing outing for four of its residents, all of whom had some level of cognitive impairment.  The owner was the only staff member on hand to supervise the residents during the outing, and was unable to supervise one of the residents, who separated from the group and was later found floating facedown in the river.  The resident later died as a result of the incident, and the Department of Community Health sought to fine the facility.  The Court upheld the fine, finding that the resident’s death was attributable to the facility’s failure to adequately supervise its residents.