This list contains the issuance of citations to Southern California nursing facilities by the California Department of Public Health over the last six months. All the citations listed are issued for reasons related to patient care. For verification of the citation, please contact the local department office or Walton Law…
Just before leaving the White House, President Bush enacted a rule that designates state inspectors of nursing homes as federal employees, making it more difficult to obtain evidence obtained by those inspectors in private lawsuits against nursing homes for abuse or neglect, such as those pursued by Walton Law Firm…
California ombudsman Nona Tolentino’s job is to investigate cases of suspected elder abuse in nursing homes. Her conclusion after years as in the business: be afraid, be very afraid. The biggest problem Tolentino faces is trying to prove the allegations. “I call it the conspiracy of silence,” she said, because…
Three California nursing home employees were arrested yesterday for allegedly injecting 22 residents with mood-altering drugs to keep them quiet and restrained. According to the criminal complaint, a nursing director, a pharmacist, and a physician drugged the residents in order to keep them compliant and easier to care for. Three…
Lemon Grove Care and Rehabilitation (San Diego County) has received the state’s most severe citation after the burn-injury death of a 74-year-old resident. State investigators found that the facility failed to adequately supervise the resident, who caught fire while smoking at the facility. According the reports, the woman was sitting…
Southern California legislators are supporting a proposal that would require nursing homes to post their ratings on the front door, much like health grades are posted at restaurants. Yesterday, Assembly Bill 215 was introduced in the California legislature to require that any nursing home that receive federal money to prominently…
San Dimas nursing home Casa Bonita Convalescent Hospital was fined $121,000 by the Department of Public Health after the death of 88-year-old resident Rita Twomey. State regulators issued three citations after finding that caregivers turned off the alarm of a ventilator keeping the resident alive. When the ventilator malfunctioned, no…
Nursing Home Compare, a five-star rating system used to rate nursing homes nationwide, has been updated and upgraded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The updated website (click here) is intended to make choosing a nursing home easier for searching, and will hopefully have the effect of “outing”…
Bed rail entrapment is not a rare occurrence in the hospital and nursing home setting. Despite repeated warnings from consumer groups and the FDA, nursing facilities across the country are using hospital beds that violate well known FDA dimensional guideline addressing safe hospital beds and bed rails, creating in increased…
The New York Times has a story today about the dramatic increase in hospital patients with bedsores over the last 14 years. A report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality finds that over 500,000 patients admitted to U.S. hospitals in 2006 suffered from a bedsore that was developed…