Articles Posted in Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

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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 Firm LLP.

 

<font size=’2′Facility Date Citation
Los Angeles County
Briarcrest Nursing Center 10/28/08 Class A
Casa Bonita 12/09/08 Class A
Casa Bonita 12/19/08 Class AA
Chatsworth Park Care Center 12/22/08 Class B
Country Manor Healthcare 11/21/08 Class B
Del Rio Convalescent 10/10/08 Class B
Hillcrest Care Center 7/28/08 Class B
Inglewood Health Care Center 11/18/08 Class B
Santa Monica Health Care Center 12/05/08 Class B
View Park Convalescent Center 01/12/09 Class B
Windsor Convalescent North Long Beach 09/25/08 Class B
Orange County
Anaheim Crest Nursing Center 01/30/09 Class AA
Flagship Healthcare Center 01/06/09 Class B
Palm Terrace Healthcare & Rehab Center 12/22/08 Class A, B
Riverside County
Extended Care Hospital Riverside 12/04/08 Class B
San Diego County
Care With Dignity Convalescent 11/06/08 Class B
Carmel Mountain Rehabilitation 01/07/09 Class B
La Jolla Nursing and Rehabilitation. 12/12/08 Class B
Ventura County
Camarillo Healthcare Center 12/18/08 Class A
OakView at University Village 1/28/09 Class B
Shoreline Care Center 1/28/09 Class B
Camarillo Healthcare Center 12/18/08. Class A
Victoria Care Center 12/18/09 Class B

 

Class AA: The most serious violation, AA citations are issued when a resident death has occurred in such a way that it has been directly and officially attributed to the responsibility of the facility, and carry fines of $25,000 to $100,000.

Class A: Class A citations are issued when violations present imminent danger to patients or the substantial probability of death or serious harm, and carry fines from $2,000 to $20,000.

Class B: Class B citations carry fines from $100 to $1000 and are issued for violations which have a direct or immediate relationship to health, safety, or security, but do not qualify as A or AA citations.

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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 LLP.

The new restriction affects about 16,000 nursing facilities in the United States, and will require litigants to go to greater lengths to obtain information that used to be routinely given. In short, the rule prohibits state health departments (such as the Department of Public Health in California) from participating in private lawsuits that are in the federal assistance program.

Bloomberg.com has more on the story here.

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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 many nursing home residents and their family are reluctant to talk about, frequently out of concerns of retaliation or being evicted from the facility. Tolentino believes strongly that nursing home residents have fundamental rights to be free from physical and verbal abuse, unnecessary restraints, or involuntary seclusion.

Tolentino is mostly right. If one were to visit the local office of the California Department of Public Health and pull the file of any large nursing home in the region where they lived, they would be startled by the number of complaints made and investigated. More troubling, however, would be the realization that the vast majority of complaints are “unsubstantiated;” meaning the investigator could not prove the allegations are true.

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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 of the patients died.

“These are powerful medications that were given, in some cases against people’s will, primarily for management, not health reasons,” said California Attorney General Jerry Brown. “It’s unconscionable behavior and it’s certainly not what people expect when they entrust their parents or grandparents to a skilled nursing home.”

The allegations in the criminal complaint are appalling, including residents becoming “zombie-like” and unable to eat or drink for days, causing severe malnutrition and dehydration. The three residents who died were Fannie May Brinkley, Eddie Dolenc, and Joseph Shepter. At least one civil lawsuit has been filed as a result of the deaths, and more are expected.

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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 in the designated smoking area trying to light a cigarette when her jacket caught fire. She died 10 days after suffering her injury.

The nursing home has been issued an “AA” citation and a fine of $80,000.00, which it intends to challenge in Superior Court. Lemon Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation received two Class B citations last year (click here), and is currently under investigation for separate allegations of neglect in a case being handled by Walton Law Firm LLP.

Walton Law Firm LLP represents individuals and families throughout Southern California in cases involving nursing home abuse and neglect. All consultations about a case are free and confidential.

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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 display the rating it received under the federal government’s recently unveiled five-star rating system.

“Posting nursing home grades is crucial to ensuring our loved ones receive the high quality of care they deserve,” State Representative Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) said in a statement. “This legislation will give families valuable information and provide an additional incentive to facilities to achieve the highest standards.”

Last month, Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously to require that any nursing facility that receives Medicare and Medi-Cal funding to post their ratings, and inform all new residents of the rating. The ratings are based on federal inspections, using three years worth of data.

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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 alarm was sounded and the resident died.

According to reports, Twomey’s daughter found her mother in bed with her lips and fingers blue. Tragically, the daughter tried to keep her 91-year-old father, whom she had brought for a visit, from going into the room. “They didn’t even get to say goodbye,” the daughter said. “That’s the heartache.”

The 106-bed Casa Bonita disputes the allegations made by the state, and intends on appealing the fines in Superior Court.

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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” those poor nursing facilities that continually under-perform.

This is good news for consumers and nursing home advocates, and elder abuse lawyers. It is also sorely needed. U.S. Census figures project that the number of Americans over 65 will double by 2030, and two-thirds of those will require some period of nursing home care.

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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 risk of suffocation and asphyxia.

The FDA has identified seven zones of entrapment, and made recommendations as to the acceptable dimensions of those zones to avoid entrapment hazards. Walton Law Firm LLP recently handled the case of an elderly woman who was found dead sitting on the floor next to her bed with her head wedged between the bars of her bed rail. She was literally hanging from the bed rail. The firm brought a lawsuit against the facility and the bed rail manufacturer for violations of FDA guidelines and other acts of negligence.

For those interested in learning more about the bedrail entrapment, and the identified zones, click here to see a diagram of the zones of entrapment. The video below is also an excellent instructional aid on the various ways a person can become entrapped in a hospital bed.

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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 either before or during their hospital stay. That represents a whopping 78.9 percent increase over a previous study performed in 1993.

The failure to prevent or treat bedsores has been the basis of several cases here at Walton Law Firm LLP. Most legal claims arising from bedsores (frequently called “pressure ulcers” or “decubitus ulcers”) occur in the nursing home or hospital setting, and involve a bed sore that became a Stage III or Stage IV before appropriate treatment was obtained. Sores that severe can often lead to secondary problems such as infection, and usually require painful treatment.

“Bedsores are preventable, but it’s not easy,” said William Spector, an agency researcher. “It’s not like you just get a prescription and one physician can take care of it. It’s a major team effort that requires a multidisciplinary team of dietary aides, nurses aides, physical therapists and physicians all playing a role.”

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