When making the decision to place a loved one into an assisted living or a nursing home, one should research the facility that they are considering. Make sure that they have all needed accreditation and licensing to be operating. One might also consider checking whether or not they are being or have been investigated by any government agencies.
Last week, the Alta Vista Healthcare and Wellness Centre in Riverside, California was raided by the FBI. An FBI spokesperson stated that they were seeking evidence in relation to alleged criminal activity. No one was arrested and no patients were disturbed. The FBI did seize some documents.
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The center’s owner, Shlomo Rechnitz, was at the center of several complaints of negligence and abuse at other facilities owned by his company Brius Healthcare Systems. While acquiring 80 nursing homes since 2004, the California Department of Public Health did not list Brius Healthcare as among one of its licensed facilities. It is not the only parent company of nursing homes to operate in the shadows.
A California paper, the Sacramento Bee, used a database that it created to track operators of nursing facilities in the state. They found that around half of the 1,260 nursing homes in the state are owned by 25 companies.
Working with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Bee found that Brius Healthcare was facing accusations for three times as many deficiencies per 1,000 beds as the state average.
One of the properties came under scrutiny when a mentally ill patient signed herself out to go to the “library, etc” and went to a nearby gas station and set herself on fire. When emergency service providers complained about the amount of 911 calls coming from patients in the facility, they= administrators rerouted the circuits so that 911 calls went to the front desk.
If someone you love has been placed in a nursing home and has suffered from neglect or abuse, contact the offices of Schenk Smith. Our attorneys specialize in litigation against nursing home abuse and neglect.
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