LPN’s troubles were known two years ago by the state

By Peter Korn

The Lake Oswego Review, Jun 19, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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More than two years ago, the Oregon Department of Human Services told the state board of nursing that Carri Lynn Borks’ criminal record made her unfit to nurse at a DHS-regulated facility – yet the nursing board allowed her to continue nursing with an unencumbered license until Saturday.

Borks is the licensed practical nurse who two weeks ago was fired from her position at a Lake Oswego nursing home amid allegations of patient abuse. The situation was the focus of a story in last week’s Lake Oswego Review.

Through Friday, however, Borks’ license with the state nursing board remained intact and gave no hint of problems, in spite of Borks’ history of drug arrests and convictions stretching back five years, and DHS finding her responsible for patient abuse at a previous nursing home.

In fact, the board renewed Borks’ license in April.

The state nursing board, after board administrators met with members of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s staff Friday, convened an emergency board meeting Saturday and suspended Borks’ license.

The meeting among nursing board and governor’s office staff came just after the article about Borks, her past and her clean nursing-board record.

Bill Buckley, criminal records unit manager for DHS, said Monday that in early 2005 Borks applied for a job at a Hillsboro nursing home. DHS officials, according to Buckley, performed a criminal records check on Borks and – because of her criminal record –did not give the facility the required approval to hire her.

Buckley said DHS officials then relayed that information to the nursing board.

Buckley said that in late 2006, Borks applied for a job at an Oregon City nursing home run by Avamere Health Services. Buckley said DHS sent Avamere a notice that denied approval for Borks’ employment as a nurse at the facility.

Yet Avamere hired her – in apparent defiance of state law – and in January, after a fire at the Oregon City nursing home, transferred Borks to its Lake Oswego nursing home – the Pearl at Kruse Way.

Three weeks ago, the daughters of an 81-year-old stroke patient at the Pearl charged that Borks verbally abused their mother, who ended up in a hospital emergency department after she began bleeding from an area around a feeding tube that had become dislodged while at the nursing home.

She also had swelling and bleeding from bruises on her arm.

Bob Schneider, chief executive officer at Avamere Health Services, said last week that DHS had given his company permission to hire Borks.

Yet on Monday, Buckley of DHS said he has no idea why Schneider said DHS had approved Borks for hire.

“I don’t have an answer for that,” he said. “It’s erroneous.”

Buckley said that after DHS officials found Borks’ criminal record in the records check for the Hillsboro nursing home, “there was communication” between DHS officials and the nursing board “that went back to the board of nursing.”

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