Anderson company cares for aging veterans in homes reaching from South Carolina to Texas

Military mementos are showcased throughout the corporate headquarters of HMR Veterans Services Inc., which sits along a side street tucked behind a Waffle House on Liberty Highway near Anderson.

"Serving those who served," is the company's motto. Its website touts HMR as the "gold standard" in providing management services for state-owned veterans' nursing homes. 

"We are committed to providing a warm and stimulating environment that will enhance and improve our residents’ quality of life," the website reads. 

More:Lawsuits and settlements put South Carolina veterans' nursing home care in the spotlight

More:Three more nursing homes for veterans are planned in South Carolina

But federal and state agencies have documented a number of problems at the nine veterans' nursing homes that HMR runs in South Carolina, Maryland, Alabama and Texas.

HMR President and CEO William S. Biggs is a disabled veteran and about half of the company’s senior management team also were in the military, said Heywood Hilliard, vice president for operations.

Hilliard said several of HMR’s leaders worked at private-sector nursing homes before joining the company.

“We have a very experienced support team,” he said.

HMR was founded in 1998, the same year that the company started managing the Richard M. Campbell Veterans Home. Biggs was the facility's former administrator. In the ensuing years, at least three other current HMR executives have taken turns leading the home, which belongs to the South Carolina Department of Mental Health.

The oldest of the state's three veterans' nursing homes, Campbell opened in 1991. HMR says the home, which is between Anderson and Belton, is "one of the finest in the country."

This year, Campbell won a coveted silver quality award from the American Health Care Association. The home has an overall rating of above average, as well as above average ratings for health inspections and staffing, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Campbell is rated as average for quality measures, and federal data shows more than two-thirds of its long-stay, low-risk residents lose control of their bowels or bladders, which exceeds state and national averages.

In contrast to most nursing homes, 95 percent of the residents at Campbell and other veterans' homes are men, who tend to have more problems with incontinence than women, Hilliard said.

“Given our predominately male populations, our numbers are going to be a little bit higher," he said.

HMR also has managed the Veterans' Victory House home since it opened in Walterboro in 2006.

'Righting the ship' after federal probe at Alabama home

HMR began managing its largest facility, the 456-bed Charlotte Hall Veterans Home in  Maryland in 2002. The home, which has an overall federal rating of above average, is about 40 miles south of Washington, D.C.

Two years later, HMR started running the four state-owned veterans’ nursing homes in Alabama. Those homes can house up to 704 veterans.

In 2007, the U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation that uncovered several problems at one of the state veterans’ homes in Alabama. According to federal records, the William F. Green State Veterans Home in Bay Minette inadequately assessed and cared for its residents and their nutritional needs. The investigation also found that the nursing home used psychotropic medications dangerously and inappropriately.

Alabama officials, HMR executives and the Justice Department agreed on a series of remedies for the home in 2011.

The Green veterans’ home has been recognized as HMR’s “facility of the year for five of the last six years,” Hilliard said.

“We’re pretty good at righting the ship if it ever needs to be,” he said.

Because the Alabama homes do not accept Medicare or Medicaid payments, federal ratings for the facilities are not available.

The Alabama Department of Public Health does inspect the state’s veterans' homes. According to that agency’s records, dozens of deficiencies have been found at the four homes since 2015, including repeated issues with the assessment of residents, dietary services and infection-control programs.

One of the deficiencies listed at the Colonel Robert L. Howard State Veterans Homes in Pell City involved a resident who received a second-degree burn on his thigh from water that was too hot.

HMR strives to quickly address problems at veterans' nursing homes, Hilliard said.

“Any type of deficiency that has been identified has been corrected,” he said.

Complaints from residents at homes in Texas

An HMR affiliate, Texas VSI LLC, began managing two state veterans’ homes in Texas in 2016. 

The 160-bed Clyde W. Cosper State Veterans Home in Bonham has a federal rating of average. The Watkins-Logan State Veterans Home in Tyler, which has 100 rooms spread out among 10 cottages, has an above-average rating.

Inspectors have found more than two dozen health-related deficiencies at the two facilities since HMR began managing them, records show.

One of the deficiencies at the Cosper home stemmed from the failure to change a resident’s soiled sheets for several hours. The resident told an inspector that he “can’t help but feel like they (staff) don’t care.”

An inspection conducted earlier this year at the Watkins-Logan home found that the facility failed to provide effective pain relief for a woman resident for more than three months. Her medication was stopped abruptly, resulting in severe withdrawal symptoms.

“I shouldn’t have to suffer,” the woman told the inspector. She said she had been very nauseous and had excruciating pain all over her body.

Members of the residents’ council at the home complained they were served turkey, chicken, white rice and noodles too often and they wanted more beef, pork, fried foods and mashed potatoes.

One resident said “We can soon start laying our own eggs because we will be chickens,” according to an inspection report.

Inspectors also found broken microwave ovens, dishwashers and wall ovens in the cottages at Watkins-Logan home, which opened in 2012, making it the newest of the eight state veterans homes in Texas.

Hilliard said HMR has installed air fryers in the cottages. He also said Texas officials have provided the money needed to repair equipment in the cottages.

According to Hilliard, HMR spends more than private-sector nursing homes on food in an effort to satisfy the predominately male populations at veterans nursing homes.

“We understand that we’re taking care of men and we understand they like to eat and we make them happy with their food,” he said.

Hilliard also said veterans at the homes run by HMR go fishing, visit casinos and take part in other outings.

“You don’t just come and you stay in that home," he said. "Your life doesn’t just stop and it becomes pills and meals. That is not what it is." 

Contributing to politicians

HMR receives nearly $36.5 million annually to run two veterans’ homes in South Carolina.

Records show the company was paid nearly $50.5 million to manage the four state veterans’ homes in Alabama in 2016, the most recent year for which figures are available.

State officials in Texas and Maryland did not return repeated phone messages seeking information on HMR’s management fees.

HMR does not spend all of its money caring for veterans. During the past decade, the company has contributed more than $140,000 to political candidates in South Carolina, Maryland and Alabama.

Most of that total, $106,000, has been donated in South Carolina, including $15,000 to candidates in Anderson County, records show. The company has contributed to both Democrats and Republicans.

Biggs, the company’s president and CEO, has personally made more than $13,000 in political contributions in South Carolina, Maryland and Alabama since 2010.