Nursing Home

Nursing home operator Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. has agreed to a $50-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit, a far cry from the more than $670 million a jury had previously ordered it to pay. A Humboldt County Superior Court jury had found the healthcare company liable for understaffing its 22 assisted-living facilities in California. State law requires nursing homes to maintain 3.2 nursing hours per patient per day — something the jury said Skilled Healthcare failed to do. The suit against Skilled Healthcare, based in Foothill Ranch, had been brought by patients and their families.

A Northern California nursing home has been fined $100,000 after its staff allegedly failed to prevent a patient from falling twice and suffering a fatal head injury for which he was not treated, state public health officials announced recently . The 85-year-old patient, who had a heart condition and diabetes, was supposed to use a walker and be supervised when walking, according to a state investigator's report released Aug. 3 on ...

Anyone who has a loved one with Alzheimer’s disease knows the heartbreak and frustration of caring for Mom or Grandpa. Now nursing homes with Alzheimer's patients are trying novel approaches that add a heavy dose of TLC to the equation. This Newport News Daily Press story profiles one Virginia facility that encourages patients to cook, iron or perform other household tasks if they so choose. "What we're really trying to do is create home," Barbara Dearmon, Riverside Health System's memory support adviser, says in the story.

Re "Post nursing home scores, board urges," Jan. 19 Anyone looking for nursing home placement for a loved one should be directed to the state licensing and certification office that is responsible for monitoring the nursing home to review nursing home records. Although these public records are sometimes incomplete, one can review complaints filed against the nursing home and the outcome of those complaints. However, nothing will ensure proper care without constant vigilance. The public should know that under federal regulations, family members have access to their loved ones 24/7.

Bay Harbor Rehabilitation Center administrators have agreed to pay a $12,000 fine and bring in a nursing consultant to settle civil charges of improper patient care at the center, a Torrance nursing home. From November, 1987, until January, 1989, county health inspectors reported a number of problems at the nursing home, including incorrect administration of medicine, failure to properly track patient conditions and poor hygiene, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rod Leonard.

Beverly Enterprises Inc. said it will reimburse the government $170 million and pay a $5-million fine in a tentative settlement of Medicare fraud charges. The nation's largest nursing home operator said it will take a second-quarter pretax charge of $199 million to cover the cost of the settlement. The payment would be the largest ever by a nursing home company over alleged Medicare fraud.

Volunteers are being sought to act as advocates for nursing home residents in the San Gabriel Valley. Ombudsmen help resolve problems ranging from abuse to dietary concerns, said Estelle Harris, training coordinator for WISE Senior Services, a nonprofit organization that administers the program in Los Angeles County. More than 50 ombudsmen answer residents' questions and identify issues and problems in long-term care in the San Gabriel Valley.

Two days of Washington hearings and a federal report on conditions in California nursing homes, with Orange County prominent, have resulted in a promise of improvement. But such pledges have been made before. Washington and Sacramento need to follow through this time. Federal inspectors who visited a Huntington Beach nursing home found that state inspectors who had looked at the same facility "missed numerous major quality-of-care problems."

The elderly, often disabled people who live in the state's nursing homes deserve--at the very least--proper nutrition and attention to common medical problems. But according to a federal Government Accounting Office report released this week, nearly one in three California nursing homes is plagued by "serious or potentially life-threatening" problems and fails to provide even a rock-bottom level of care. The U.S.