California Nursing Homes, Abusers, Find Increasing Leniency, Group Claims
Published: August 31st, 2010 • No Comments
California is dismissing an increasing number of criminal charges brought against people suspected of committing nursing home abuse, and is cutting down on surprise inspections meant to curtail nursing home neglect, according to California Watch, a state consumer advocacy organization.
Attorney General Jerry Brown’s move toward less oversight of California nursing homes and more lenient treatment of suspected abuse perpetrators comes after a tenure by Bill Lockyer, who made nursing home neglect and abuse prevention a top priority, the organization said in a SFGate.com story. The state was just recently the site of a record-breaking $677 million jury award in a nursing home class-action lawsuit that claimed that nursing home franchise giant Skilled Healthcare cut staff to dangerous levels.
In addition to the reduction in prosecutions and inspections, California Watch also claims Brown’s office has reduced nursing home abuse training for state law enforcement officials. It has not held a training session on the issue in three years and has none scheduled.
However, the organization claims that Brown has increased enforcement in the area of Medicare fraud to go after those nursing homes that may be cheating the state out of reimbursement money.
