ALBANY, Ga. (WALB) — A former certified nursing assistant with 25 years of experience is speaking out, exposing what she calls a systemic culture of neglect, abuse, and a lack of basic human dignity behind the closed doors of PruittHealth-Palmyra in Albany.

Her firsthand account is now backed by newly obtained federal and state inspection reports from 2024 and 2025, which paint a devastating picture of the facility, including an “Immediate Jeopardy” citation, the most severe classification of risk to resident health and safety.

The former CNA, who recently retired early after working two terms at the facility, said she felt forced to resign because she could no longer bear to witness the treatment of residents.

“I resigned early and retired early from there because I didn’t like seeing stuff like that,” she said. “I feel like, in a sense, I was forced to retire out of something that I enjoy because of the way these people have been treated.”

The former CNA, who does not want to be identified because of concerns about retaliation, says she saw residents left without proper care, employees ignoring their responsibilities, and situations she believes robbed vulnerable residents of their dignity.

“I just said to myself, instead of seeing this and know it’s wrong, and I wouldn’t want none of my people here putting up with all of this, I leave,” she said.

Now, she says she continues to visit some of the residents she cared for.

Part 1: Federal investigators declare ‘Immediate Jeopardy’, impose $48k fine

State and federal investigators with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) validated many of the former CNA’s descriptions during a series of inspections in 2025.

Most notably, a complaint inspection completed May 29, 2025 revealed the facility was placed under Immediate Jeopardy May 20, 2025 after failing to perform basic skin assessments and wound treatments. Investigators determined the facility’s failures had “caused or had the likelihood to cause serious injury, harm, impairment, or death to residents.” As a direct result of these severe violations, the federal government slapped the facility with a $48,909 civil fine. The state found that this severe level of noncompliance had quietly existed at the facility since Dec. 24, 2024.

At the center of the Immediate Jeopardy citation was a catastrophic failure in the facility’s skin integrity program:

• The sacral pressure ulcer crisis: Investigators reviewed a sample of residents with severe pressure ulcers (bedsores). They found that the facility failed to perform consistent weekly skin assessments for six high-risk residents (identified as R1, R3, R8, R9, R11, and R12).
• Undocumented wounds: On April 16, 2025, after severe issues were identified in one resident, the facility conducted a “skin sweep” of all residents. The sweep uncovered five residents with previously unidentified, undocumented wounds, including unstageable pressure ulcers.
• Ignored treatments: For multiple residents, the facility failed to perform wound treatments ordered by physicians or recommended by the wound care nurse practitioner.

“They double pad them,” the former CNA told WALB, describing how staff handled incontinence to avoid doing physical checks. “If they don’t feel like changing, they double pad. And then they put an insert in them. And then, the wet pad, they throw a clean one over it.”

According to the federal report, this failure to manage resources and monitor skin care programs was cited as a direct failure of the facility’s administration (F-Tag 0835) and quality assurance committee (F-Tag 0867), which failed to oversee the skin integrity program effectively.

Part 2: Firsthand accounts of neglect and loss of dignity

Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) Kay Sutherland, who has 30 years of nursing experience, left the facility in March. Her transition into the home was a trial by fire.

She says the patient to caregiver was overwhelming. But the most recent CMS report shows PruittHealth-Palmyra’s nurse per resident average per day is 3.51. The state average is 3.6.

“I got on the floor... and was 56 patients and only one nurse,” Sutherland told WALB. “And nobody trained me. They just threw me in there... I literally killed myself. Running the whole shift, about 15,000 steps a shift. It was very mind-boggling and frustrating and cold.”

Sutherland described a grueling daily struggle, being worked so hard that her body broke down. “I was ran in the ground so much. I kept being sick... I was calling out once, at least once a week. Sick.”

According to Sutherland, the resident-to-staff ratio made safe care mathematically impossible.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE OF PRUITTHEALTH-PALMYRA

“That 56 patients would have, at the most, four CNAs, which is 14 residents a CNA. Or three, which is 18 to 19 per CNA. That is not even feasible,” Sutherland explained. “Even with four, 14, that’s way too many. That’s way too many. And the patient does not get quality care.”

Her experiences are mirrored by a former certified nursing assistant (CNA) with 25 years of experience, who worked two separate terms at the facility before retiring early in 2025 out of protest.

“You cannot give the full attention to 24 patients,” the former CNA said, describing shifts where she was left completely alone on a wing with up to 24 dementia patients. “I resigned early and retired early from there because I didn’t like seeing stuff like that... I feel like, in a sense, I was forced to retire out of something that I enjoy because of the way these people have been treated.”

The former CNA says staffing was one of the biggest problems she encountered, leaving she and other compassionate staff stretched to a breaking point.

“You cannot give the full attention to 24 patients,” she said, noting there were times when she was left entirely alone to care for up to 24 patients with dementia. She said other CNAs would routinely hide in closets, bathrooms, or empty rooms, or put liquor in their coffee rather than report for their assignments, leaving a fraction of the staff to carry the entire workload.

Worse, she says residents were routinely stripped of their basic human rights.

‘That is not a bath’

Among her most shocking allegations is how some staff members bypassed basic hygiene requirements. The former CNA recalled confronting a coworker who was tasked with bathing a resident.

“What she did was put lotion and mouthwash into wipes, shake it up, and bathe them that way,” she said. “My response to her was... ‘How would you like for someone to do you like that, or one of your loved ones? That’s not a bath.’”

A resident left wet and exposed

She also detailed an incident in the dementia unit in which a resident who was prone to falling was left lying on a thin mat on the floor in a high-traffic hallway, soaked in urine.

“She was completely wet. She was begging to get up—’Please help me, I want to get up’—and the nurse just sitting there,” she recalled. When a coworker asked her to change the woman right there on the floor in public view, she refused. “I said, ‘I will not do that... because you’re taking this lady’s dignity and respect from her. She still is a human being.’”

Shut doors and sudden deaths

The former employee alleged that reporting these issues to management yielded few results, and she described a culture of closing doors to silence the cries of residents.

“No door in that nursing home is supposed to be closed unless you’re changing or there is some privacy going on,” she said. “But just because you don’t want to hear them holler, that’s not good enough... One night, the person closed the door on them. When we went back in to check on that person that morning before we left, the person was dead.”

In another allegation, she described a resident complaining of chest pain who was ignored. “They told him to go back to bed. They’ll give him some for gas because that’s probably all it is. That man passed because he was trying to tell them that he was feeling some type of way in his chest.”

She claims the facility delayed sending residents to the hospital because “the more patients that you send out to the hospital, the ratings go down.”

Part 3: Further violations confirmed by federal records

A separate annual health inspection completed Nov. 24, 2025 confirmed the facility’s problems extended into nearly every aspect of resident care:

• Respiratory Care Failures (F-Tag 0695): Federal inspectors found the facility failed to safely administer oxygen therapy in accordance with physician orders. In one case, a resident (R109) with COPD and chronic respiratory failure was placed at risk due to improper oxygen administration and a failure to use required humidifier bottles.
• Abuse and Neglect Reporting Failures (F-Tag 0609): The facility failed to timely report an “injury of unknown origin” to state authorities for a resident reviewed for accidents, violating its own policies on reporting suspected abuse or neglect.
• Accident Hazards (F-Tag 0689): Inspectors noted the facility failed to ensure essential fall-prevention and assistance devices—specifically fall mats—were placed at the bedsides of moderately cognitively impaired residents with a known history of falling.
• Dietary and Puree Violations (F-Tag 0803 & F-Tag 0805): Inspectors found the kitchen failed to follow standardized puree recipes for 18 residents on pureed diets, and served incorrect, dangerous portions to a renal patient (R10) on a restricted diet, placing them at severe nutritional risk.

Part 4: Families echo the firsthand accounts

The federal findings heavily corroborate the experiences of families who have had loved ones inside PruittHealth-Palmyra.

Donna MacMiller said her brother, a cancer patient, was moved to the facility at the end of June to be closer to home. Since then, she says her family has faced constant hurdles to ensure he receives basic care.

“When you first walk in the door, you smell urine,” MacMiller said. “You might look in the room because the door is open, and people are hanging all off the bed. It is not appropriate, and some of them don’t be dressed properly.”

MacMiller said the facility limits her brother’s baths to three times a week, despite him being accustomed to bathing daily. She also noted that physical therapy orders, including specialized blue leg supports for his lipedema that need to be worn for 40 minutes daily, are routinely ignored.

“They never put them on, probably one or two times since he’s been there,” MacMiller said. “Every time I address the issue, it’s like, ‘Okay, we’re going to do it,’ and they never do.”

When she went to confront staff about her brother missing his bath, she said she found four young ladies sitting at a desk on their cell phones. Only a fifth employee, who was on her lunch break, offered to help.

“The other four ladies, they didn’t even move a muscle,” MacMiller said. “They told me, in other words, if I don’t like the way they treat my brother, then I need to take him home.”

Part 5: Staffing shortages and low pay

Both MacMiller and the former CNA acknowledged that PruittHealth is facing a severe staffing crisis. Two large signs at the facility’s entrances advertise immediate openings for CNAs, LPNs, and registered nurses.

The annual health inspection report noted the facility failed to employ sufficient, competent dietary and nutritional staff (F-Tag 0801).

The former CNA argues that low pay, which she says starts around $11 to $15 an hour for new hires, coupled with poor administrative oversight, has fostered an environment of severe apathy.

“Truthfully, if you don’t have compassion, if you don’t care, you don’t need to be there,” the former CNA said. “I just pray that these people get a voice. Because they have no voice.”

Read the 2025 reports:

• May 2025 Report
• November 2025

WALB emailed and called the PruittHealth communications team to get an update on the corrective plan WALB was told went into place during our last investigative report. WALB also asked about a 2026 inspection because there is not one available publicly. A response has not yet been received.

No updated statement has been provided as of the publication of this article.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE:

• Inside South Georgia Nursing Homes: Families raise concerns after records reveal repeated deficiencies
• Allegations from inside a nursing home that may be serving your loved ones

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