Danville’s Cunningham & Hughes Funeral Home agreed to a six-month license suspension to clean up its act. Put on probation in 2004 for lax compliance with consumer protection laws, record-keeping mandates and established operating procedures in the industry, the business repeatedly failed unannounced inspections in 2005, 2006 and 2007 that it had been told to anticipate.
Inspectors found inaccuracies in its price list, cracked and peeling floor tile and walls, stains in the morgue around the sink and on the floor, dirty embalming instruments and other evidence that contributed to “an appearance of general disorganization,” according to a consent order. “A bloody cloth was found on the floor.”
Other problems included that the funeral home was five weeks late paying a $1,000 fine in 2005 and was late in submitting copies of its waste removal contract and copies of its submissions of death data to the Virginia Department of Health’s division of vital records, raising further questions.
Finally, the state Department of Health Professions confronted manager Cynthia Coleman Hughes with the home’s shaky track record in a written notice in August.. Hughes agreed the allegations were true and went along with the state taking away the home’s funeral establishment license Sept. 6.
Hughes can ask for it back in six months.
