Independent auditor to monitor facilities
17th STREET The owner of more than a dozen convalescent homes in Southern California, including one in Santa Monica, has settled a class action lawsuit, agreeing to pay roughly 4,000 patients $2 million for failing to provide adequate care.
SunMar Healthcare, which owns Pacific Convalescent Center on 17th Street, has also agreed to donate $50,000 to California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a nonprofit based in San Francisco that is dedicated to improving conditions at long term care facilities.
The settlement, which was reached last month, also requires SunMar to pay for an independent auditor to monitor conditions at the company’s facilities for the next two years, conducting surprise inspections, said Stephen Garcia, the attorney representing the patients.
The lawsuit was filed in Orange County Superior Court against SunMar and its 18 California skilled nursing homes on behalf of patient Warren Richardson. It claimed that SunMar’s promotional materials said it provided skilled nursing care of a particular standard when in fact the company and its corporate officers and managers deliberately kept budgets so tight that appropriate staffing and training of staff couldn’t be provided.
“You don’t judge the kind of nursing services you provide on the number of patients you have, but by the need,” Garcia said.
The lawsuit claimed SunMar was accepting the sickest patients in need of the most care because that way the company would receive more MediCare reimbursement payments. But instead of using that money to hire more staff, the company was cutting back, leading to a high number of deficiencies.
“Sicker people mean more cash,” Garcia said.
From August of 2006 to October of 2007, Pacific Convalescent Center received 11 notices of deficiencies by the California Department of Health for providing substandard care and violating residents’ rights, according to the lawsuit.
Representatives from Pacific would not comment on the settlement.
SunMar did not return phone calls. Garcia said the lawsuit was filed to make meaningful changes in long term care, and was never about the money.
“At a minimum, our parents and grandparents, who have lived long and served well, deserve the truth from those who would take their money,” Garcia said. “This lawsuit is about that truth being told about SunMar facilities in California.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 26, 2008. Read the original PDF.