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Owners, Staff Allegedly Abandon Elderly Patients At Castro Valley Assisted Living Facility
CBS ^ | CBS

Posted on 10/28/2013 8:24:29 AM PDT by Morgana

CASTRO VALLEY (CBS SF) — The California Department of Social Services this week moved to revoke the license for a Castro Valley assisted living facility where patients were allegedly left with inadequate care this weekend, a department spokesman said Saturday night.

The department on Monday issued a temporary suspension order on the license of Valley Springs Manor, as well as the licenses for associated facilities in Oakland and in Modesto, that took effect Thursday, according to spokesman Michael Weston.

The facility came to the attention of law enforcement Saturday after responders to a medical call found a skeleton staff struggling to care for around 14 elderly residents, according to Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. J.D. Nelson.

The patients were moved out to hospitals and other locations and sheriff’s officials launched an investigation that could potentially result in elder abuse charges, Nelson said.

(Excerpt) Read more at sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: nursinghome; obamacare; prolife
Obama's America, Obama's health care.
1 posted on 10/28/2013 8:24:29 AM PDT by Morgana
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To: Morgana

No doubt 0dumbocare was will worse
but ts particular situation has nothing to do with the POS 9dumbo

This is Calif after all
This sounds like one very poorly run company.
I do give credit to the employees there that called for help
from your link
“Apparently what happened is that the facility staff felt that they were starting to lose the capability to care for these individuals, so they called for help,” Weston said of Saturday’s events/

This will NOT happen under 0dumbocare. those people would have already been pushed off the cliff


2 posted on 10/28/2013 8:30:25 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: RWGinger

According to the video a neighbor called for help as well. She had complained about the facility for years. What is wrong with people that they just leave these sick, old people to die? Guess they don’t realize they will be the same one day.


3 posted on 10/28/2013 8:32:56 AM PDT by Morgana (Always a bit of truth in dark humor.)
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To: RWGinger

4 posted on 10/28/2013 8:36:44 AM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Morgana

” Guess they don’t realize they will be the same one day.”

You’d think rational people would understand that but most if not all of those who ignored the elderly or just left them are minimum wage people with zero training
and it is a difficult nasty job
which makes me appreciate the employees who called for help all the more


5 posted on 10/28/2013 8:38:09 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: Morgana

“Skeleton staff.” I guess that was appropriate.


6 posted on 10/28/2013 8:49:34 AM PDT by livius
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To: Morgana

The state and county raided the place in the middle of last week, with essentially a swat team, and forced the staff to leave by posting a notice on the door prohibiting their entry.


7 posted on 10/28/2013 8:50:19 AM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: Morgana

A lot of these residents have probably outlived their family or perhaps never had much to begin with. And the staff was probably trying to do the best they could. They did call for help when they realized they couldn’t deal with it.

It’s the owners of this facility that need looking into. Apparently , this is not the only questionable facility that they own.


8 posted on 10/28/2013 8:55:09 AM PDT by livius
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To: editor-surveyor

Government is great at pointing out problems but is absolutely horrible at fixing them.


9 posted on 10/28/2013 10:05:46 AM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: livius

It has been happening a lot in Florida over the years. The state does not want to shut them down because they cannot afford to keep the doors open any other way.


10 posted on 10/28/2013 10:08:42 AM PDT by ClayinVA ("Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it")
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To: RWGinger; Morgana

Well, I wonder about the families of these elderly patients. I wonder how many of the people just left in such facilities could have been cared for at home.


11 posted on 10/28/2013 10:31:59 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Let me hear what God the LORD will speak. -Ps85)
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To: editor-surveyor

I hope the employees who had the decency to call for help are not left unemployed for long.


12 posted on 10/28/2013 10:33:15 AM PDT by Bigg Red (Let me hear what God the LORD will speak. -Ps85)
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To: Morgana

Let me guess, nobody blamed it on the facility being shut down by the state?


13 posted on 10/28/2013 10:34:51 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: ClayinVA; GeronL

Many people are blaming family, but I suspect that most of these people didn’t have family, for one reason or another, and really had no other place to go. And it’s true in Florida at least that the state has tolerated these places because there’s not much of an alternative.

In the case of this California facility, it was shut down by the state because of poor patient care (apparently, the neighbors had been complaining for years). They removed about half of the residents but couldn’t place 12 of them, and the remaining staff said that they would be capable of caring for these people over the weekend. But when they realized they couldn’t handle it, they called for help, which was the right thing to do.

That said, this is part of a chain of small nursing facilities in CA. I don’t know if it’s owned by doctors or by private investors, but in either case, these things live by getting a minimal recompense from some state or federal program...and spending as little as possible on staff or buildings.

All this is happening while the state of California and various other states are busy shutting down the Catholic religious order institutions that cared - and cared well - for this patient group.


14 posted on 10/28/2013 11:15:45 AM PDT by livius
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To: Bigg Red

Basic nursing is a skill in high, and increasing demand.


15 posted on 10/28/2013 2:05:02 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: GeronL

>> “Let me guess, nobody blamed it on the facility being shut down by the state?” <<

.
There is a significant element to this that you may be missing:

People often tire of, or simply become financially unable to continue paying for the care of their relatives, and just abandon them to the care home. The average cost for a dementia patient is over $3000 per month.


16 posted on 10/28/2013 2:11:14 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (Freepers: Not as smart as I'd hoped they'd be)
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To: editor-surveyor
Basic nursing is a skill in high, and increasing demand.

It is. The problem is that for a number of these facilities, they're just cash cows for the owners. They hire barely qualified CNAs, who may have taken just a few weeks' worth of training to become "certified," and pay them $8 an hour. Staff turnover is huge. It's a thankless job. Some residents can be very difficult to work with. Meanwhile, the owners are raking in the cash, and the employees and the residents are paying the price.

17 posted on 10/28/2013 2:14:10 PM PDT by Hoffer Rand (There ARE two Americas: "God's children" and the tax payers)
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