Nursing Home Chain Must Hire Compliance Officer and Independent Monitor

Large California Nursing Home Chain Fined $1.35 Million, Ordered to Improve Resident Care

SACRAMENTO, CA — March 17, 2006 — The California Attorney General and Pleasant Care Corporation have reached a $1.35 million settlement concerning charges of abuse, neglect and negligence at the company’s nursing homes (Press Release, March 8, 2006). Besides paying the fine, Pleasant Care must improve resident care:

• The nursing staffing ratio at all its nursing homes must be 3.2 hours per patient per day, as required by California law. Outside audits will ensure compliance.
• The staff must receive training in patient care, including topics such as wound treatment, proper nutrition and accurate record keeping.
• Each nursing home must create a plan for reporting and investigating abuse and neglect. Staff members suspected of resident or elder abuse must be put on leave during the period of investigation.
• Pleasant Care must hire a Compliance Officer to ensure the proper care of residents and accurate reporting for the state. The company must also pay for an Independent Monitor, who reports to the Attorney General.
• A new whistleblower protection program must allow employees, residents and others to anonymously report suspected nursing home violations and elder abuse.

Pleasant Care operates 30 nursing homes in California with a total of 4,300 residents. Within the last five years, the company has received over 160 citations, many for actions that put the lives and health of residents in serious danger. In one instance, a nurse was unable to help a resident with a blocked airway because the facility’s suction machine was broken. The patient died as a result. At another nursing home, a resident died from a severe pressure sore. The wound was an example of “abominable wound care management,” according to the coroner.

Shortly after the Pleasant Care settlement, the company’s subsidiary, Pleasant Care of Northern California, pleaded no contest to criminal negligence at its nursing home in Napa, CA (Napa Valley Register, March 10, 2006). The case involved six residents who received substandard care, including two who died as a result.

Other California Nursing Home Cases

The California Attorney General has prosecuted other facilities for nursing home abuse. In 2002, a large nursing home chain, Beverly Enterprises, Inc., agreed to a settlement of $2 million in civil and criminal penalties for engaging in elder abuse and providing substandard care. In 2001, another large company that managed nursing homes, the Sun Healthcare Group of Irvine, pleaded no contest to an elder abuse charge in the deaths of two residents.

“It’s our opinion that nursing homes are trusted with the care of some of society’s most vulnerable populations ... so when the operators of these facilities adopt policies that are more consistent with the warehousing of chattel than human life, then they invoke prosecution from our office,” commented Collin Wong–Martinusen, director of the Bureau of Medi–Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse in the office of the state Attorney General. He said that the outcome of the Pleasant Care case should send a message to other nursing homes that inadequate care will not be tolerated (LA Times, March 9, 2006).

Others are less optimistic. Elizabeth Mautner, the Napa ombudsman program coordinator, has doubts that Pleasant Care will change despite the civil suit settlement (Napa Valley Register, March 10, 2006). “We were there constantly at Pleasant Care,” she said, referring to the Napa facility. “We practically lived there and our presence didn’t seem to change them.”

Elder and Nursing Home Abuse and Your Legal Rights

For the complete text of the duties and responsibilities of Pleasant Care under the settlement agreement, see the California Attorney General web site. The site also contains a list of nursing homes owned by Pleasant Care Corporation and its subsidiaries.

Brayton Purcell is concerned about nursing home care. We are experienced elder abuse attorneys, focusing on nursing home abuse and inadequate pain management issues. Please feel free to contact us to learn more about your loved one’s legal rights in a nursing home or other long–term care facility.

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• “It’s our opinion that nursing homes are trusted with the care of some of society’s most vulnerable populations ... so when the operators of these facilities adopt policies that are more consistent with the warehousing of chattel than human life, then they invoke prosecution from our office.”
  —Collin Wong–Martinusen, director of the Bureau of Medi–Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse in the office of the California Attorney General

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