Run by Aurora Behavioral Health Care, the hospital advertises on its website such amenities as a tennis court, swimming pool and manicured garden. Shared rooms cost $840 a night, while private rooms are $1,400 a night. It recently created a deluxe treatment center, offering concierge service, a "personal healthcare attendant" and access to a flat-screen high-definition TV.
In January, the cable network VH1 began airing the first season of a reality show featuring Pinsky and two other Las Encinas employees, which is filmed at Pasadena Recovery Center not far from the hospital.
According to the VH1 website, the show "chronicles the dramatic, unscripted real life experiences of a group of celebrities as they make the life-changing decision to enter a treatment program."
Las Encinas' recent troubles began when Jeffrey Hearn, 28, who was admitted for drug addiction in March, was found unresponsive after 7 a.m. April 11, records show. He was transferred to Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, where he died a day later, according to the coroner's office.
The state investigation, quoting police and hospital staff, found that another patient had "somehow supplied or facilitated contraband prescription medications, Soma and Norco . . . resulting in a medication overdose."
The alleged supplier of the painkillers was a former pharmaceutical representative who knew how to obtain medications, according to the state report.
The day after Hearn died, 23-year-old Alex Clyburn, was admitted to Las Encinas for drug addiction. Clyburn, who was a student at Cal State Northridge, had taken a large dose of OxyContin, a painkiller, and Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, just before his family brought him in, according to the state and coroner's reports.
The hospital gave him several medications, including those intended to relax muscles, relieve pain, decrease heart rate and lower anxiety, the coroner's office wrote.
Clyburn's mother, Arline, a nurse, was concerned about the mix of prescriptions because of the possibility it would cause respiratory distress, said Sean Burke, a lawyer for Clyburn's parents.
A hospital nurse assured his mother that "they would check on Alex through the course of the night," Burke said. A mental health worker was ordered to check on him every 15 minutes, the state report said.
According to the coroner's report, Clyburn appeared "heavily intoxicated" to other patients and they observed him "staggering to his room."
