A southern Iowa nursing home that’s owned in part by a man accused of defrauding taxpayers has been cited for 19 regulatory violations. One of the alleged violations that state inspectors recently uncovered at Prestige Care Center in Fairfield involves a nurse who, according to state records, openly diluted a patient’s morphine with tap water to compensate for the portion of narcotic that was missing. According to state records, the incident occurred last September after a medication aide questioned a registered nurse about a shortage of liquid morphine painkiller that had been prescribed for one specific resident.
