Poor Conditions Lead To Nursing Home Residents' Deaths - Is A Fine Enough??
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Let me get this straight: The California Department of Public Health performed investigations into the deaths of residents at the following facilities: Fountain View Subacute and Nursing Center in Los Angeles; Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills; and Downey Care Center in Downey. The Department found conditions at the facilities contributed to the deaths of three residents. So what did the Department do? It imposed fines on the facilities. FINES?!
According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, The resident at Fountain View: "The patient, who had a history of falls, was not properly supervised at the nursing home. When he was found on the floor, no one knew how long he had been there, according to the department." For this, the Department levied a fine of $75,000.00.
The Motion Picture and Television Hospital was fined $80,0000.00 when "a 90-year-old Alzheimer's patient who was in a wheelchair died a week after falling down a stairwell, according to a report. She had previously fallen down the same set of stairs."
Downey Care Center received a $75,000.00 fine for for "failing to monitor a patient's blood glucose level after she was released from a hospital in 2010. The woman died from a diabetic coma."
Each and every one of these deaths was preventable. Each and every one of the families of the residents were irreversibly and unnecessarily harmed by the facility's negligence. Each and every one of these families likely has grounds for a lawsuit against the facility.
In this era of personal accountability, I hope the fines imposed by the California Department of Public Health were just the beginning of holding the facility accountable for its negligence. Making sure nursing homes and assisted living facilities are accountable for their negligence in caring for their residents is what I do. I do it because I believe when a loved one's care is entrusted to a Nursing home or assisted living facility, they have a duty to make sure they do every reasonable thing to ensure no harm comes to that resident.
