Previous owners of Orange Co. assisted living facility fined $6K

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Only Eyewitness News discovered the state just forced the previous owners of several troubled assisted living facilities to give two of them up, including one in Orange County.

Eyewitness News at 10's Kenneth Craig first showed the problems last year, when the state tried to shut the Ann-Way Assisted Living facility down.

One year after Eyewitness News first visited the long-troubled Orange County assisted living facility, the new owners are confident the problems are over.

"It was a lot more than I bargained for, but you can see the changes," Mari Clark, the new owner of Ann-Way assisted living facility said.

"From the smell of the place, to how it looks organized, the people are cleaned up."

The state agency for health care administration revoked Ann-Way's license last October.

Repeated poor inspections showed residents kept escaping, medications weren't locked away and people weren't being cared for properly.

"There was a lot of confusion, a lot of confusion," Clark said about how conditions were when she came on the scene.

After a year-long legal battle, the state just issued a final order demanding those previous owners pay nearly $6,000 in fines.

It forced them to give up their license to a south Florida facility they also owned.

And, they had to hand over the facility in Orange County to a team of people who said they've hired consultants, dieticians and hope to get the facility back in compliance.

"Sounds like you're trying to turn this place around 100 percent?" asked Craig.

"That's what we're trying to do, that's what we're trying to do," Clark said.

The previous owners did not respond to a request for comment.

WFTV