ORANGE COUNTY A Santa Monica assisted living center was named in a class action lawsuit filed last week against its parent company, alleging that the elder care provider purposely pinches pennies and cuts back on services offered, while promoting itself otherwise.
The lawsuit against Sun Mar Health Care was filed in an Orange County Superior Courthouse on Jan. 10 on behalf of Warren Richardson, an 84-year-old resident of the company’s facility in Anaheim. Sun Mar operates 18 facilities in California, including the Pacific Convalescent Center in Santa Monica. All 18 assisted living facilities have been named in the case.
A representative of Sun Mar declined to comment Monday. A hearing date has not been set.
The suit claims the nursing homes knowingly misrepresent themselves as providers of quality health care for the elderly, while intentionally running on a tight budget that would not allow them to offer such top notch level of service, according to attorney Stephen Garcia who is representing Richardson.
Richardson has been a patient at the Anaheim Healthcare Center since April 2007. “(The staff) failed to adequately meet his needs, they failed to adequately assess him, they failed to adequately implement their care plans for him,” Garcia said on Monday.
Anywhere between 4,000 and 10,000 former and current patients of the nursing homes from Jan. 8, 2005 to Jan. 5, 2008 are expected to be a part of the class action suit, Garcia estimates.
Sun Mar and its facilities falsely advertise themselves as offering “superlative” care when in fact they have a history of repeated violations by the California Department of Health Services for “substandard care,” according to Garcia.
The Pacific Convalescent Center received 11 violation notices between Aug. 1, 2006 and Oct. 31, 2007, according to the lawsuit.
Aside from compensation, the plaintiffs in the class action suit are seeking to force the nursing homes to operate as they are advertised. An estimated amount of money each plaintiff would receive was not available.
“Money is not a precipitating factor in this lawsuit,” Garcia said. “Our primary desire is to motivate, cajole or whatever lawful mechanism is available to make this company operate their facilities as they represent them to be.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 15, 2008. Read the original PDF.