Wayne Nursing Home Must Pay Deaf Woman It Repeatedly Hung Up On

WAYNE, NJ — A township nursing home must pay a deaf woman it repeatedly hung up on when she tried contacting them using a telephone relay service.

Atrium Acute Care must pay Nicole Perkins $2,500 and is subject to a $10,000 penalty from the state as part of a settlement reached with the state Division on Civil Rights, state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal announced.

Atrium Acute Care must train its employees on the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and include information on telephone relay services used by people who are deaf.

"This case should serve as a message to healthcare facilities and other businesses around the state that we are serious about promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities," said Grewal. "This was a troubling case because there simply is no excuse for a nursing home — of all places — to repeatedly refuse to accept a telephone call from an operator calling on behalf of a deaf person."

Perkins was a caseworker at St. Joseph's in May 2016 when she tried to call Atrium officials to get medical records for a deaf client. She solicited the help of a video relay service called Purple Communications to complete the call.

Purple uses text messages or FaceTime to communicate with others. An operator places the call to the intended party and announces they are relaying the information back to the deaf caller on text or over video.

A man with the Atrium who answered the phone refused to accept a relay call from Purple, saying "I'm not responsible" and hung up.

Five calls were made in nine minutes, but the same man refused to accept the calls and refused to give his name when asked, Grewal said, citing phone records obtained in the case.

Atrium denied any wrongdoing. A man working at Atrium told state investigators that he may have hung up on what he thought was an automated call.

Two Atrium receptionists told state investigators they were not familiar with relay-service-assisted calls.

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

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