"Rechnitz then submitted change-of-ownership applications seeking licenses to run those homes. Rather than approving or denying them, CalMatters found that the state Department of Public Health simply left his applications in "pending" status for years. Despite that, his companies were allowed to continue operating the homes. In 2015, he applied for licenses for five Windsor nursing homes. The next year, the department denied the change of ownership applications, but again allowed Rechnitz' companies to operate them. In her scathing 2018 report, the state auditor Elaine Howle criticized the California Department of Public Health, saying weak oversight and licensing lapses increased risk to nursing home residents."
"In an effort to address these issues, the Legislature passed a law in 2022 to close a loophole that had allowed nursing home operators to run facilities without first receiving licenses. The law required the Department of Public Health to look at an applicant's track record over several years before granting a license. But before that law took effect the following year, the Department of Public Health suddenly granted Rechnitz and his companies many of the licenses it had previously left pending or outright denied. The group includes nursing homes that were the focus of recent lawsuits, such as Country Villa Wilshire, the Los Angeles-area facility where a jury awarded $2.34 million after a woman allegedly fell repeatedly due to understaffing; Windsor Redding, where the 24 patients died during a COVID outbreak; and Windsor Healthcare Center of Oakland, where complaints filed in Alameda County Superior Court allege a woman was sexually assaulted twice and a man died after being given too much medication."
"Ed Dudensing, a Sacramento-based attorney who specializes in elder abuse in nursing homes, is bringing the case in Alameda County Superior Court alleging that neglect and poor staffing allowed a fellow patient to rape 79-year-old Cheryl Doe on multip"
Rechnitz submitted change-of-ownership applications to operate multiple nursing homes, but the Department of Public Health left many applications pending for years while allowing operations to continue. Applications for five Windsor homes were denied in 2016, yet Rechnitz' companies still ran the facilities. A 2018 state auditor report faulted weak oversight and licensing lapses that increased resident risk. The Legislature passed a 2022 law requiring multi-year record reviews before licensing, but the department granted many previously pending or denied licenses before the law took effect. Several licensed facilities are tied to lawsuits alleging understaffing, COVID deaths, sexual assault, and medication errors, and an elder-abuse attorney filed suit alleging neglect enabled a rape of a 79-year-old resident.
Read at Kqed
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]