CANHR Releases 'Operation Guardians' Report

Untreated bed sores and infections, residents left for hours lying in their own waste, a resident with maggots in a festering rectal wound. Despite a generation’s worth of state and federal laws to guarantee a satisfactory standard of care in California nursing homes, an alarming number of facilities are failing to deliver decent humane care to their residents. This is the takeaway from CANHR’s hair-raising review of fourteen reports from California’s Operation Guardians, a project of the state Department of Justice’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. The reports reveal a shameful state of affairs in the reviewed nursing homes that is fostered, in part, by a lack of statewide enforcement from the Department of Public Health (DPH).

Operation Guardians began in 2000 to conduct surprise, on-site inspections of California nursing homes in an effort to protect residents and improve care for elderly and dependent adult residents. (See Operation Guardians description) While the project has scaled back its number of inspections, it still manages to inspect about one new nursing home each month. Each inspection results in a report detailing the facility’s compliance with basic sanitation and quality of care standards. The reports are sent to DPH so it can conduct an independent investigation and issue appropriate enforcement actions. The reports are not made available to the public. CANHR made a Public Records Act request to obtain all reports issued from January 1, 2010 through March 7, 2012 and has subsequently posted the reports to its website. It is believed that CANHR is the first organization to publicly reveal the Operation Guardians reports.




Each of the nursing homes listed below were investigated by Operation Guardians staff between January 1, 2010 and March 7, 2012. If you click on the facility’s name, you will see a summary of the findings as well as a link to the full report and, where available, a supplemental physician’s report.

Bakersfield Healthcare Center - Bakersfield

Braswell's Hampton Manor - Yucaipa

Desert Knolls Convalescent Hospital - Victorville

Evergreen Healthcare Centers of Vallejo - Springs Road (aka. Springs Road Healthcare) – Vallejo

Florin Healthcare Center - Sacramento

Golden Cross Health Care - Pasadena

Motion Picture and Television Fund Skilled Nursing Units - Woodland Hills

Plott Nursing Home - Ontario

Roseville Point Health & Wellness Center - Roseville

Sunrise Convalescent Hospital - Pasadena

Tarzana Health and Rehabilitation Center - Tarzana

Windsor Redding Care Center - Windsor

Winsor House Care Center (aka. Orchard Post Acute Care) – Vacaville

Yuba Skilled Nursing Center - Yuba City

Source:
Operation Guardians - Executive Summary

Press Release: Canhr Releases Attorney General Reports Showing Rampant Abuse and Neglect in Fourteen California Nursing Homes

Attorney General's Description of Operation Guardians

California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform - CANHR