An Exposè: When is a 5 Star Nursing Home not a 5 Star Facility?
After billions of federal Medicare dollars paid to Los Angeles Department of Public Health by the California Department of Public Health, for over 12 years of egregiously misleading, subpar and falsified investigation results, Los Angeles County Public Health Department's contract is up for renewal next year....
Friends and neighbors helped Helen set up her new forever home. Her daughter and son were noticeably missing. She was downsizing from an 800 square foot, one bedroom home to a 140 square foot room with a private half-bathroom. Communal assisted showers and a bathtub were just down the hall. This meant we couldn’t move all her furniture into...
Helen's personal Doctor arrived first thing in the morning, greeting her, and asking her how she was feeling. Dr. Chai was her Concierge doctor and she trusted him in all matters. She let him know about her anxiety and her stress of living in the skilled nursing facility. He kindly and compassionately listened to her and her anxiety decreased....
Helen just wanted to die. She couldn't understand why she was still alive. By this time I had asked the social worker if there was a handout that explained how things “worked” in the facility- that is, meals, bathing, bedtime, mail…. Finally Helen was given a slim binder with some information. She was so relieved as she read through...
Helen asleep in her wheelchair while waiting for an hour after asking for help with going to bed. She slept another 30 minutes before anyone came to help her. It had happened the week before also. The charge nurse had given her a sleeping pill 90 minutes earlier and the staff just left her to fall asleep in her...
Most, if not all of the patients in the skilled nursing facility at the Gardens do not receive a copy of their rights as mandated by both federal and state law.
For my friend Helen, knowing about her rights would have made all the difference for her. These include being informed of her treatment plan - including her medications, participating...
Twelve years of media exposè and federal and state investigations of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and nursing homes are worse than ever - Medicare continues to rate the offending facilities as 5 star!
Meet Helen, the Elderly Poster Girl For Victims of Nursing Home Neglect and Abuse Cases:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Like the photo above, abuse and neglect documentation...
How could this person at LACDPH - Los Angeles County Department of Public Health tell me that the complaint that I had so carefully documented, tell me “it didn't happen.” Yes, she literally used those very words! I had included a photo, and a video, of Helen being left not once, but twice, to fall asleep in her wheelchair....
If you need a skilled nursing facility for yourself or a loved one, what's your next step? Where do you look? This kind of information is online these days. But what you may not find online is what to avoid.
First, do NOT buy into a Life Plan Community or any retirement community that requires a large, non-refundable entrance fee...
