Beverly Enterprises - Poster Child Of Fraud And Neglect In Nursing Home Industry

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By Evelyn Pringle (about the author) Page 2 of 7 page(s)

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Mr. Marthai died after a feeding tube was improperly inserted into his stomach by a vocational nurse and by the time he was finally taken to the hospital, the report said, his stomach had swelled to the size of someone 7 or eight months' pregnant and was as hard as a rock.

Mr. Marthai's death certificate listed peritonitis with septic shock, infection of the abdominal cavity with blood poisoning, and gastrostomy tube dysfunction as the causes of death.

The California Department of Health Services, determined that the Beverly staff failed to check whether the feeding tube was inserted and working properly and issued Beverly an AA citation, the harshest penalty a nursing home can get.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer and Santa Barbara District Attorney Thomas Sneddon announced that the civil and criminal enforcement actions against Beverly and its subsidiaries would result in "court-enforceable improvements in the quality of care for elderly Californians at 60 facilities statewide."

Mr. Lockyer said: "The settlement takes direct aim at the criminally negligent care found at the Beverly La Cumbre nursing home in Santa Barbara that led to the deaths of two frail and elderly residents."

In the criminal enforcement action, Beverly entered a "no contest" plea to the felony elder abuse of Ms. Simmons and Mr. Marthai and agreed to pay the statutory maximum $54,000 in fines and penalties; reimburse investigation costs of $532,927; and allow victims to seek restitution from the court.

In the civil action, Beverly agreed to chain-wide improvements to ensure quality care and paid $2 million in civil penalties. A court-ordered permanent injunction was issued to "cover all sixty California facilities owned or operated by Beverly Enterprises, Inc."

The injunction stemmed from more than 90 citations and deficiencies found in Beverly facilities statewide in the previous three and a half years. Among the citations were patients suffering from major bed sores, dehydration, malnutrition, poor personal hygiene and improper medication.

And here is the great news. Beverly also agreed to notify the Attorney General's Office of any injury, death or accident that may have been caused by inadequate care.

In reading about Beverly's failed inspection, keep in mind that nursing home administrators usually know when surveyors are coming.

In addition, Indianapolis Attorney George Gray says that in many of the cases handled by his firm, former staff members say that the nurses and administrative staff are trained to race into the hallways and into the patients' rooms to provide care whenever the state surveyors are in the building.

"This way it appears that there is plenty of staff to meet the needs of the patients," he explained.

"In one case," he said, "the nursing home had a code to alert all of the staff that the surveyors were in the building. It was announced over the intercom for all of the staff to hear."

"In another case," he noted, "even the bookkeeper would put on a white nurse's smock and would look like she was helping with patient care when the surveyors were in the building."

Some nursing homes will pad their staffing schedules to fool the state surveyors into thinking they have more staff by scheduling nursing staff who are on vacation, or in one case, he said, with staff who have quit, to look as if the nursing home has plenty of staff.

Following right along on Beverly's path of nursing home abuse and neglect, on December 12, 2003, LTC Daily Analysis Briefs reported on a Honolulu investigation of Beverly's Hawaii operations that led to a $1.2-million settlement against "the state's largest long-term care provider."

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