Former employee raises alarms over safety of rural Nebraska facility

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — A former employee of an assisted living facility in rural Nebraska says the recent death of a 52-year-old resident is just the tip of the iceberg of problems there.

The former employee of Hope-Wymore Assisted Living, who asked to be anonymous, spoke to Channel 8 exclusively.

He said the safety of the residents is at risk.

The Wymore community is heartbroken over the news, the source said.

“Within one day, I’ve had four people in here saying how bad that is that that happened,” he said.

The Wymore Police Department is investigating the circumstances surrounding the woman’s death.

Police Chief Bobby Martinez told Channel 8 that police received an anonymous report about how the woman’s medication was given.

The former employee said there used to be at least two people in charge of medications.

“Now one person is in charge of all of their meds,” he said.

The source said the facility changed administration last summer.

“It was tension in the air the whole time,” he said. “Most of the staff have been there years, and the new administration gets there, and everybody left.”

Safety complaints about the facility increased under the new leadership, the source said.

“When I was there, the state licenser, Adult Protective Services, they were there for probably a month straight every day,” he said.

Channel 8 reached out to the owners of the facility. They declined to give a statement at this time but said they may provide one later.