CA nursing homes under fire.

Skilled nursing homes in Redlands and Upland are among 29 listed in a class-action lawsuit that alleges they are woefully understaffed and endangering patients.

Representatives for the centers, however, say their care is above what is required by law. And Ensign Group Inc., which oversees the homes, says the accusations are baseless and vindictive.

The lawsuit, filed May 10 in Los Angeles Superior Court, accuses Brookside Health Care Center in Redlands and Upland Rehabilitation and Care Center of operating fraudulently and being in violation of health and safety codes.

The plaintiffs want penalties paid, money returned to patients who suffered from poor staffing and monitors put in place to keep tabs on the nursing homes.

“We believe it’s the profit motive at work,” said attorney Stephen M. Garcia, who represents the plaintiffs. “The largest component of cost in these facilities is labor.”

What happened?

Key to the lawsuit is a California statute passed in 1999 that requires each patient to receive 3.2 hours of direct care each day.

The suit claims the targeted facilities, all owned, operated or controlled by Ensign Group Inc., delivered less than the requisite care needed between May 10, 2002, and May 10, 2006.

The suit was initiated by Helen Davison. Terminally ill with cancer, Davison said she received poor care at a nursing home, including having to wait hours or days before receiving desperately needed pain medication, Garcia said.

“She did not want anybody else to go through what she went through,” he said.

Ensign is being sued by California Alliance for Retired Americans and Service Employees International Union/United Healthcare Workers-West, as well as by Davison in the class-action suit.

Were there deaths? Were there adverse outcomes directly related to the staffing? I don’t see any evidence of that.

Ensign’s Greg Stapley said the lawsuit is just the latest in a series of attacks by the union.

“We always staff above (3.2 hours),” Stapley said, adding that it is based on the needs of patients, whether they require “3.6, 3.7 (or) 4.0″ hours of individual care.

Brookside, the lawsuit claims, averaged 3.16 nursing hours per patient per day during 2003, delivering 1,308 fewer hours of care than required by the state.

But Gary Little, executive director of Brookside, called the accusations false and “very upsetting.”

“Our staffing is better than required, and we have exceptional outcomes,” Little said. “We work really hard to make sure our residents are well cared for – and it shows.”

This lawsuit sounds bogus to me. I work in this line of work. It is hard. It can be brutal, for sure. We work short staffed all the time- co workers call out and it’s too late to get agency help in. What’s a facility to do?? Hire truck drivers to come in and work as aides? Or nurses? We can’t just pull staff out of a hat. Many places have tried to have on-call staffing too and that doesn’t work either.

Lawsuits like this will just undermine any attempts to implement mandated ratios.