Republican Missouri Lieutenant Governor Mike Parson wants the top administrators of the St. Louis Veterans home fired. Several residents have complained about things like mismanagement, being mistreated and inappropriately medicated. The allegations have led to five different investigations, including one by Parson’s office.

Lt. Gov. Mike Parson

“The people there, the employees there, the families are frustrated and believe that nobody is listening to them,” says Parson. “The more I learn, the more I get frustrated. I think it’s time that we just admit that we’ve got a problem with the administration there and it needs to change.”

Parson says one red flag is that administrator Rolando Carter hired the assistant administrator, who has a censored license.

“Based on having been the administrator of a skilled nursing facility that was closed due to repeated violations involving compliance, including failure to ensure medications were administered in an appropriate manner and to follow physicians’ orders,” says Parson.

Another red flag is when Carter learned the facility was being investigated by Parson’s office. Parson says workers were banned from talking to investigators.

“If you’re an administrator, you should be the one wanting your employees to come talk to you and say ‘What’s the problems here and how do we fix them?’ instead of trying to keep everything to where you don’t talk,” says Parson. “I wouldn’t know why anybody would be worried for the Lieutenant Governor’s office to go in there with their staff and talking to employees. What are you worried about? If you’re doing a good job, you don’t have anything to hide.”

The steps required to remove the administrator and assistant administrator from their positions are unknown but could be the job of the Missouri Veterans Commission. Missourinet is awaiting a response from the commission.

Parson’s office launched an investigation into the 300-bed facility in February and continues its investigation. Investigations earlier this year by the Missouri Veterans Commission and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found no problems.

Other investigations are currently underway by the Department of Public Safety and an outside firm – Harmony Healthcare International. The firm is expected to release its findings by the end of this year.