Connecticut’s Long Term Care Ombudsman Mairead Painter, Sen. Saud Anwar, and Aging Committee co-chair Rep. Jane Garibay, recently called attention to alleged resident safety issues at an East Windsor nursing home, including an anonymous complaint sent to Painter’s office that contained images of a resident with an alleged maggot-infested wound.

The owner of Fresh River Healthcare, who has consistently disputed the allegations, said in a statement that the state’s Department of Public Health concluded its investigation of the facility, with “no findings of noncompliance.”

“We take every concern about resident care seriously,” said David Skoczulek, iCare Health Network’s vice president of business development and communications. “However, there is considerably more to these situations than can be conveyed in a photograph, a brief account, or a press conference. The state’s regulatory agency has now completed its inspection without identifying a single deficiency. We stand by the care provided at Fresh River Healthcare and throughout the iCare Health Network.”

But Brittany Schaefer, spokesperson for DPH said “the investigation is ongoing at Fresh River Healthcare,” and declined to comment any further until the investigation is concluded.

Painter said her office has received “dozens of complaints about this facility over the last few years with many still unresolved.”

Referring to the anonymous complaint concerning the resident with an alleged maggot infested wound at Fresh River, Anwar, a physician, referred to it as “a horrific situation.

“An elderly individual, who had a skin breakdown from a scalp infection, was in pain and did not receive any pain medicine,” Anwar said.

‘We felt it was a sentinel case to highlight we have a major problem’

Anwar alleged that because the resident was screaming in pain that the facility put him in a secured memory unit and “as a result did not get any care and he developed an infection on the lesion and literally maggots on his scalp.”

“We felt it was a sentinel case to highlight that we have a major problem in nursing homes at various levels,” said Anwar.

iCare disputed the characterization of the incident involving the resident at the facility.

“Although privacy laws limit what Fresh River Healthcare can disclose, it is important to note that the nursing home has a comprehensive care plan to address the resident’s specific needs,” iCare said in a statement. “The resident has been seen frequently by a team of medical providers, and the care has been documented extensively in the resident’s medical record.”

The facility received a five-star quality rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services, which also raised additional questions for Anwar about facility inspections.

“We wanted to look at their rating class and see if it’s a snapshot or it’s a long-term assessment,” he said.

Anwar said staff shortages remain a major issue at nursing homes in the state.

“We need to do better, not only in the number of personnel taking care of the patients, but they should be in a position of being better trained to understand and manage situations,” he said.

Connecticut is ranked in the bottom third of the nation for nursing home staffing levels, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data compiled by the Long Term Care Community Coalition. The national average is 3 hours and 45 minutes of direct care per resident per day.

Connecticut’s average is 3 hours and 40 minutes of direct care per resident per day, according to data.

Advocates at the nonprofit Long Term Care Coalition say the national average for nursing home staffing levels is “terrible and insufficient,” and that Connecticut finds itself 36th in the nation in nursing home staffing levels because as a wealthy state, similar to New York and New Jersey, it is more attractive to for-profit operators.

By comparison, Alaska, which is ranked first in the nation for nursing home staffing levels providing roughly 5 hours and 45 minutes hours of direct care per resident per day, according to data from the coalition.

Matt Barrett, president and CEO of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities and Connecticut Center for Assisted Living, has disputed the ranking, saying that data shows that Connecticut nursing homes are on par with the national average.

Painter said her office has filed 11 complaints, with six related to staffing, concerning the facility.

“We have heard that they have reached out to the owners of the nursing home as well as the union to say that they don’t have enough staff on hand to provide the quality care that the staff want to be able to provide to the residents,” Painter said of the staff of Fresh River Healthcare. “And that’s a concern for me. That puts the residents in a situation where there’s a safety concern that also puts staff at risk.”

Since June 2026, DPH has cited three iCare nursing homes for “failing to meet Connecticut’s minimum staffing requirement of 3.0 hours of care per resident per day,” Schaefer said.

In an investigation of Fresh River in September, DPH found “based on a facility documentation review and interviews for two sampled days, the facility failed to meet the staffing levels in accordance with the Connecticut public health code,” according to the inspection report.

Skoczulek said in an email that “the state has made several attempts over the past year to implement complex, but well-intentioned changes to the Connecticut staffing statute.

“iCare Health Network is actively working with regulators to ensure full compliance,” he said. “Nursing homes in Connecticut are faced with significant challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified nursing staff. This issue is one that is faced across the Nation. We remain committed to achieve full compliance and will continue to work collaboratively with the state on these issues.”

‘Unsubstantiated public accusations’

Asked about DPH statements contrary to the health organization’s statements that the investigation is closed, Skoczulek said iCare’s statement “reflects the findings communicated to us by DPH surveyors at the conclusion of their on-site inspection, during which no deficiencies or regulatory findings were identified, and we await the state’s final written determination.”

iCare said in a statement that “allegations of widespread care problems and unresolved regulatory concerns were presented publicly without advance communication to facility leadership or an opportunity for the organization to investigate and respond.

“iCare Health Network strongly disputes the characterization of Fresh River Healthcare presented at the press conference and believes the completed DPH inspection should receive the same attention as the allegations that prompted it,” the health organization continued in its release. “This investigation was prompted solely by the press conference, as no complaint or report concerning these allegations had previously been received from any of the parties involved.”