State revokes Rochester group home’s licenses

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Several Rochester group homes are closing their doors after the Minnesota Department of Human Services (MN DHS) revoked their licenses. Sources say The Crawford Home LLC sent out an email Wednesday morning breaking the news to employees and residents.

The MN DHS has been looking into the group home since 2019.

On March 28, 2019, a home and community-based services inspector with the Minnesota Department of Human Services issued a licensing review. They documented 16 citations including mishandling of paperwork and not having proper training for employees.

A few weeks later on April 10, the state issued a noncompliance order. According to state documents Crawford House leaders failed to send in evidence that they had fixed the issues found in the licensing review.

About a year later in June of 2020, there was a maltreatment investigation into the group home. One of the residents left the facility and staff members failed to look for her until the next day. The resident was later found unconscious and taken to a hospital for a possible seizure and drug overdose. The state was not able to determine if neglect occurred in this incident.

Because of this, The Crawford House conducted an internal review and employees were retrained on the resident’s specific plan.

It wasn’t until November 5, 2021 when the state issued a license revocation of the LLC. One of the owners of the group home had a previous license revoked from the group home Helen’s Home on September 8 of 2021.

According to state statue, if an individual’s license is revoked, they cannot be granted another license within five years.

Now, the leaders appealed this the same day, but it wasn’t taken to court until May 25, 2022. The final hearing took place last week on December 20 where the state decided to revoke the license, ceasing all operation.

Sources say originally, the residents were asked to move out Wednesday, but now have until January 3 to find new housing.

We reached out to The Crawford House President Tiffany Prow, but she declined to comment.