All the details in our Health Safety stories come from publicly available Final Orders, Consent Orders, Orders of Suspension and other documents from the Virginia Department of Health Professionals. For more information, see the Editor’s note below the story.
CHARLOTTESVILLE – In 2012, Octavia Carter was convicted of petit larceny in the General District Court of the city of Charlottesville.
She applied for her nurse aide license in May 2014. One of the questions on the application asked if she had been convicted of any crimes. She did not tell the board about the Charlottesville conviction.
Her license was approved.
She continued to lie about the conviction as she sought work, not including it in her applications to Monroe Health and Rehabilitation Center , the Heritage Inn Assisted Living Facility, and Charlottesville Health and Rehabilitation Center.
She was hired by the Laurels of Charlottesville. On July 31, 2019, she placed a resident in a facility day room. The patient was the only person in the room, and Carter turned off the lights and closed the door. Other staff members could hear the resident calling for help, asking if she had done anything wrong or if she was being punished.
There was no physician's order for restraint.
On Oct. 18, 2019, Carter was working at Monroe Health and Rehabilitation. She got into an argument with a resident of the facility. It escalated, then Carter called the resident a “trifling mother******.” She threatened the resident, saying her boyfriend would find them and break their arm.
The Virginia Board of Nursing met to discuss Carter's case in September 2022. Carter was not present and did not have a representative appear before the board.
The board described her 2012 conviction as a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude. By not disclosing her previous conviction, the board found she violated Virginia State Code. The board revoked Carter's license to practice as a nurse aide.
Due to the patient incidents, the board also entered a finding of abuse against her.
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To file a formal complaint against a health professional, click here . For links to the public information informing this story, see below.
Want to know if your doctors, other medical professionals or local pharmacies have been investigated? Check out the license lookup.
EDITOR’S NOTE: When citizens are a danger to the public safety, law enforcement arrests them and charges them with crimes; they have the opportunity to face a jury of their peers; if convicted, they serve time and/or probation that can often ensnare them in the system for years.
When a medical professional is an alleged danger to the public safety, the Virginia Department of Health Professionals handles all facets of the inquiry, including the investigation and penalties. And sometimes, even when a medical professional is found liable of doing harm to patients, they may face a reprimand, pay a fine and continue to practice, without missing a day of work and with little chance for the public to see what they’ve done.
The Health Safety stories in this series tell the facts of cases where medical professionals endanger our public health safety. They also bring you into the world of the medical board’s consent orders and public final orders, so you can see exactly how the VDHP’s self-policing system works.
Lyra Bordelon (she/her) is the public transparency and justice reporter at The News Leader. Do you have a story tip or feedback? It’s welcome through email to lbordelon@gannett.com . Subscribe to us at newsleader.com .
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Nurse aide threatened patient with broken arm, lied on application
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