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A former nursing home administrator has filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Brius Healthcare owner Shlomo Rechnitz, alleging that he was put on probation and later fired after alerting Rechnitz that the facility he ran had been inflating its staffing figures in reports to state regulators.
In an April 3, 2015 email to Rechnitz, Jeff Arsonson, the recently-hired administrator of the California Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Palm Springs, wrote that the facility had been counting nurses working in entirely different departments in the staffing ratios they reported to government agencies.
“This has ‘inflated’ the numbers and we were not close to that in regards to “direct” patient care,” Aronson wrote to Rechnitz, according to court papers.
The facility had reported a staffing ratio of 3.77 direct caregivers per patient day – well above the state requirement of 3.2, according to the complaint.
Just four days later, Aronson received a letter from one of his bosses informing him that he was being placed on probation, citing job performance issues including an increase in approved overtime for staffers, according to the lawsuit.
Aronson’s attorney, Stephen Garcia of the firm Garcia, Artigliere & Medby, wrote in court papers that the letter contained falsehoods that could be used “to later justify future termination.”
Brius, which controls one-in-14 nursing home beds across California, has been hit with multiple recent citations for understaffing its facilities. Earlier this year, state regulators fined the company $20,000 for understaffing the Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Humboldt County and $15,000 for understaffing the San Rafael Healthcare and Wellness Center in Marin County.
Aronson’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Sept. 26, 2017, suggests that Brius may have knowingly – and unlawfully – inflated staffing ratios in reports to state regulators to satisfy minimum staffing requirements. A copy of the lawsuit is available below.
Three months after being placed on probation, Arsonson was put in charge of a second Brius home: Desert Springs Healthcare and Wellness Center in nearby Indio, according to the lawsuit.
On March 14, 2017, state inspectors issued four Immediate Jeopardy citations against the facility, according to court papers. In his complaint, Aronson claimed that he could not have prevented issuance of the citations because the defendants (including Rechnitz) “mandate that Desert Springs not maintain a sufficient number of staff to decrease costs and increase profits.”
[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Aronson-Complaint.pdf”]Although state regulators quickly withdrew the citations, Aronson was terminated on March 27.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) has received a demand from Shlomo Rechnitz, the billionaire CEO of Brius Healthcare, to “immediately retract” a recent report on Brius’ insider transactions. The union, which represents caregivers at two Brius nursing homes in California, told Rechnitz it stands by its report.
On August 29, 2017, Brius attorney Patricia Glaser sent a two-page letter to NUHW (see below) stating, “We write on behalf of Shlomo Rechnitz and Brius Healthcare to demand an immediate retraction of the ‘report’ entitled ‘Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions: How California’s Largest Nursing Home Chain Funnels Millions to Insider Companies.’”
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Glaser is a partner at Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen Shapiro LLP, a Los Angeles-based firm that represents large global corporations and high-profile entertainers. One of the firm’s partners, Robert Shapiro, represented O.J. Simpson during his murder trial.
Glaser’s letter claims that NUHW’s report “contains many false and defamatory statements portraying Mr. Rechnitz and Brius Healthcare in a false light and causing them great harm.” However, Glaser’s letter fails to identify the false statements, instead claiming the report “is so riddled with false and misleading statements as to make it impractical to identify each and every wrongful and damaging statement.” Glaser’s letter goes on to claim that NUHW’s report has “caused damage to Mr. Rechnitz and Brius Healthcare in the many millions of dollars.”
In response to Glaser’s letter, NUHW’s attorneys delivered a three-page letter (see below) describing the report as “fair, accurate, and in support of the Union’s rights of public participation…”
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Additionally, the letter states: “Your correspondence is vague and ambiguous, and does not identify the sentences or facts you assert to be false and defamatory. Thus, if you wish to make a demand for retraction of any statement contained in the Union’s labor communication, please do so by specifically identifying the statement, and provide us with any information you would like us to consider regarding each statement.”
To date, Brius’ attorneys have not responded to the letter, which was delivered several weeks ago.
In their letter, NUHW’s attorneys note that the union recently filed a federal charge against Brius alleging that a company official illegally demanded that the union take down its watchdog website, www.BriusWatch.org, as a condition of settling a collective bargaining agreement for approximately 200 Brius caregivers represented by NUHW.
According to the attorneys’ letter, NUHW is concerned that Brius’ demand to retract the report, which is posted on BriusWatch, “appears to seek a result that Brius representatives know cannot lawfully be demanded through collective bargaining.”
In response to Glaser’s letter, NUHW added one sentence to its report – “Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions” – citing additional evidence in support of its findings, including the role of Rechnitz’s wife as a joint owner of one of Shlomo Rechnitz’s middleman landlord firms. Furthermore, NUHW has added a note at the end of the report regarding these facts.
Published in August 2017, “Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions” documents how Brius nursing homes purchased $67 million in goods and services from more than 65 companies controlled by Rechnitz and his relatives in 2015. In some cases, these insider-owned supply firms appear to have charged inflated prices that presumably leave nursing homes with fewer funds to care for residents.
For example, public records indicate that many Brius homes appear to have paid inflated rents to landlords and middleman firms controlled by Rechnitz, his relatives and allies. NUHW’s analysis of government data covering more than 600 California nursing homes indicates that Brius facilities paid rental rates that were 36.6 percent higher, on average, than its counterparts in the same counties during 2015.
A page on BriusWatch.org allows readers to review hundreds of pages of source documents cited in the report.
Brius has been cited repeatedly by government investigators for under-staffing and under-resourcing its facilities as well as delivering substandard care to its elderly, disabled and frail residents. In 2016, the California Department of Public Health refused to allow Brius to take over five nursing homes, citing the fact that it had been cited for 386 serious patient care violations during the previous three years.
In June of 2017, California’s Joint Legislative Oversight Committee unanimously approved a state audit of Brius and its related-party transactions. The results of the audit are expected to be released sometime during 2018.
NUHW Responds to Shlomo Rechnitz’ Demand to Retract Report on Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions
The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) has received a demand from Shlomo Rechnitz, the billionaire CEO of Brius Healthcare, to “immediately retract” a recent report on Brius’ insider transactions. The union, which represents caregivers at two Brius nursing homes in California, told Rechnitz it stands by its report.
On August 29, 2017, Brius attorney Patricia Glaser sent a two-page letter to NUHW (see below) stating, “We write on behalf of Shlomo Rechnitz and Brius Healthcare to demand an immediate retraction of the ‘report’ entitled ‘Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions: How California’s Largest Nursing Home Chain Funnels Millions to Insider Companies.’”
Glaser is a partner at Glaser Weil Fink Howard Avchen Shapiro LLP, a Los Angeles-based firm that represents large global corporations and high-profile entertainers. One of the firm’s partners, Robert Shapiro, represented O.J. Simpson during his murder trial.
Glaser’s letter claims that NUHW’s report “contains many false and defamatory statements portraying Mr. Rechnitz and Brius Healthcare in a false light and causing them great harm.” However, Glaser’s letter fails to identify the false statements, instead claiming the report “is so riddled with false and misleading statements as to make it impractical to identify each and every wrongful and damaging statement.” Glaser’s letter goes on to claim that NUHW’s report has “caused damage to Mr. Rechnitz and Brius Healthcare in the many millions of dollars.”
In response to Glaser’s letter, NUHW’s attorneys delivered a three-page letter (see below) describing the report as “fair, accurate, and in support of the Union’s rights of public participation…”
Additionally, the letter states: “Your correspondence is vague and ambiguous, and does not identify the sentences or facts you assert to be false and defamatory. Thus, if you wish to make a demand for retraction of any statement contained in the Union’s labor communication, please do so by specifically identifying the statement, and provide us with any information you would like us to consider regarding each statement.”
To date, Brius’ attorneys have not responded to the letter, which was delivered several weeks ago.
In their letter, NUHW’s attorneys note that the union recently filed a federal charge against Brius alleging that a company official illegally demanded that the union take down its watchdog website, www.BriusWatch.org, as a condition of settling a collective bargaining agreement for approximately 200 Brius caregivers represented by NUHW.
According to the attorneys’ letter, NUHW is concerned that Brius’ demand to retract the report, which is posted on BriusWatch, “appears to seek a result that Brius representatives know cannot lawfully be demanded through collective bargaining.”
In response to Glaser’s letter, NUHW added one sentence to its report – “Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions” – citing additional evidence in support of its findings, including the role of Rechnitz’s wife as a joint owner of one of Shlomo Rechnitz’s middleman landlord firms. Furthermore, NUHW has added a note at the end of the report regarding these facts.
Published in August 2017, “Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions” documents how Brius nursing homes purchased $67 million in goods and services from more than 65 companies controlled by Rechnitz and his relatives in 2015. In some cases, these insider-owned supply firms appear to have charged inflated prices that presumably leave nursing homes with fewer funds to care for residents.
For example, public records indicate that many Brius homes appear to have paid inflated rents to landlords and middleman firms controlled by Rechnitz, his relatives and allies. NUHW’s analysis of government data covering more than 600 California nursing homes indicates that Brius facilities paid rental rates that were 36.6 percent higher, on average, than its counterparts in the same counties during 2015.
A page on BriusWatch.org allows readers to review hundreds of pages of source documents cited in the report.
Brius has been cited repeatedly by government investigators for under-staffing and under-resourcing its facilities as well as delivering substandard care to its elderly, disabled and frail residents. In 2016, the California Department of Public Health refused to allow Brius to take over five nursing homes, citing the fact that it had been cited for 386 serious patient care violations during the previous three years.
In June of 2017, California’s Joint Legislative Oversight Committee unanimously approved a state audit of Brius and its related-party transactions. The results of the audit are expected to be released sometime during 2018.
Despite their nursing home being immediately across the street from a hospital with a fully functioning air conditioning system, eight residents of Hollywood, Fla. died earlier this month from stifling heat after Hurricane Irma knocked out the facility’s power supply. Could a similar situation happen at one of California’s 1,200 skilled nursing facilities?
“Authorities are still investigating what happened in the Hollywood nursing home tragedy, but this appears to be more about neglect and poor judgment than natural disaster,” National Union of Healthcare Workers President Sal Rosselli said. “California has stronger nursing home regulations on the books than Florida, but the state often struggles to enforce the rules and like Florida we have nursing home operators more focused on profits than patient care.”
California’s largest nursing home operator, Brius Healthcare, for example, has repeatedly ignored state regulations. Former California Attorney General Kamala Harris labeled Brius owner Shlomo Rechnitz “a serial violator” of nursing home rules in a 2014 emergency motion she filed seeking to prevent Brius from taking over 19 nursing homes in Southern California. That same year, Brius, which operates about 80 nursing homes in California, was tagged with three times as many serious deficiencies per 1,000 beds as the statewide average, according to a Sacramento Bee investigation.
Last year, the California Department of Public Health rejected Brius’ bid to permanently operate five nursing homes, citing records that the company had been cited for 386 serious patient care violations over the previous three years. Nevertheless, the state has not stopped Brius from continuing to operate those five homes as well as the 19 homes in Southern California under provisional licenses.
A report earlier this year, first posted to Brius Watch, documented how in 2015 Brius nursing homes paid $67 million to 65 firms controlled by Rechnitz and his relatives in exchange for various services, including a design and construction firm operated by Rechnitz’s son-in-law. Another one of the firms operates a private jet used by Rechnitz and his family members.
“The tragic deaths of frail seniors in Florida should be a call to action for all of us here in California to make sure that nursing home operators are running safe facilities and that regulators punish them swiftly and strongly when they put lives in danger,” Rosselli said.
In the wake of Brius Healthcare threatening to shut down three of Humboldt County’s five nursing homes last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation last week aimed at protecting nursing home residents whose facilities face closure.
Assemblyman Jim Wood, who represents California’s North Coast region, introduced AB 275 earlier this year after working to successfully block Brius from closing the three homes. Brius, which has monopoly control of Humboldt’s skilled nursing industry, would have forced nearly 200 frail seniors to move to homes far from their families had the homes been shuttered.
“During those many months, residents and their families were on a roller coaster ride of anxiety,” Wood said in prepared statement. “It became obvious to me that new protections would have to be put in place to prevent this trauma from happening to other residents in the future.”
Wood’s bill increases the notice periods — from 30 to 60 days — that long-term care facilities are required to provide residents, their families, and state agencies when they are planning to close.
The bill also requires a resident’s personal doctor or facility medical director, if the resident doesn’t have a doctor, to provide a thorough medical and social assessment of each resident to help limit any trauma residents might face in transferring to another facility. Additionally, the legislation authorizes the California Department of Public Health to reject a facility’s relocation plan if it determines it lacks adequate protections to minimize transfer trauma.
Brius threatened to shut down the Humboldt facilities in what critics said was a ploy to boost the company’s Medicaid reimbursement rates.
After a four-month stand-off with local officials and patient allies, including the California Association for Nursing Home Reform and the National Union of Healthcare Workers, Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz backed down and agreed to close only one facility without forcing any residents out of the county and away from their loved ones. The conflict included street protests by nursing home residents’ family members and supporters, full-page newspaper advertisements, and extensive news coverage by television, print and radio outlets.
“Although this was an issue that directly affected a rural community I represent, this situation could occur anywhere in California where beds are limited or similar ownership situations exist,” Wood said. “So I am very pleased that this bill will become law in January.”
Brius workers went on strike in San Rafael and picketed in Novato, Calif. Tuesday in response to the nursing home conglomerate’s refusal to finalize contracts unless they agree to take down BriusWatch.
Dozens workers formed picket lines and chanted outside both facilities. Several nursing home residents (including the man pictured below) took part in the action.
“We are the voice for our residents,” said Maria Martinez, a veteran nursing assistant in San Rafael. “It is time for us to show the company that they need to do the right thing. And that we are not going to be silent. And every single thing they do, we are going to bring it out to the community.”
Numerous allies attended the picket lines including Marin County Supervisor Damon Connolly, former Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, and representatives for Assemblymember Marc Levine, the North Bay Labor Council, SEIU 1021 and the Marin Association of Public Employees.
Also stopping by in San Rafael were representatives from the California Attorney General’s Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.
Brius Watch is regularly viewed by a variety of regulatory and law enforcement agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, California Department of Consumer Affairs, California Franchise Tax Board, and the U.S. Social Security Administration.
Brius and NUHW caregivers were close to agreeing on a labor contract for caregivers at both facilities when Brius officials illegally demanded that the union take BriusWatch off the internet. The union filed formal charges against Brius with the National Labor Relations Board, noting that websites are not subject to collective bargaining.
Many of the striking caregivers have gone up to five years without raises, but are leery of agreeing to take down the watchdog website when Brius continues to leave their facilities understaffed and under-resourced.
Since 2015, regulators have cited the San Rafael home for stocking expired food and supplying so few towels and wash cloths that caregivers have had to use paper towels to dry residents. In June, the California Department of Public Health fined the facility $15,000 for failing to meet minimum staffing levels for nursing assistants, LVNs and RNs.
“We’re letting the community know that we are here standing up for our patients,” Martinez said during a noontime rally in San Rafael. “This union doesn’t let this company get away with anything. We’re going to fight.”
Brius staffed both facilities with replacement workers, most of whom were bussed in from Nevada. The company indicted it planned to lock out its employees for two days following the strike.
In August of 2017, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) published a report (“Brius Healthcare’s Insider Transactions”) describing how Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz may be profiting at nursing home residents’ expense by steering millions of dollars in taxpayer funds to a web of companies he created to service his nursing homes.
The following are links to some of the source documents used to prepare the report. Many of the documents are public records obtained from government agencies including the California Department of Public Health, the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development and California courthouses.
(1) Deposition of Shlomo Rechnitz. On January 24, 2013, Rechnitz gave this deposition in a civil lawsuit known as “Samuel Nevarrez vs San Marino Skilled Nursing and Wellness Centre, LLC et al” (Los Angeles County Superior Court Case No. BC491081). On pp. 68-69 of the transcript (which are excerpted and reproduced at the beginning of the attached document for ease of viewing), Rechnitz testifies about his role at Boardwalk West Financial Services, LLC, which in 2015 collected $3.5 million from Brius nursing homes for providing financial consulting services, according to financial records filed by Brius nursing homes with the State of California.
(2) Shlomo Rechnitz’ control of a “middleman” property company. This document describes the ownership structure of a “middleman” property firm set up by Shlomo Rechnitz to lease and then sublease five nursing homes in Humboldt County including Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center. According to this one-page chart (which was attached as an exhibit to the lease agreement), Rechnitz is a 99.9% owner of Eureka-LET, LP (the “middleman”). Meanwhile, Shlomo Rechnitz and his wife Tamar Rechnitz are 99% and 1% owners, respectively, of Eureka-LET LP’s general partner, Eureka-LET GP, LLC.
(3) 2015 Annual Lease Expense per Average Bed: Brius vs. Non-Brius Investor-Operated Nursing Homes. In order to evaluate whether Brius nursing homes paid inflated rents to other Rechnitz-controlled firms, NUHW compared their rental rates with those paid by non-Brius for-profit nursing homes operating in the same county. This document displays the results of NUHW’s analysis, which computed a metric of “Annual Lease Expense per Average Bed” using data supplied by OSHPD. The analysis, utilizing data covering more than 600 California facilities, found that Brius nursing homes paid rental rates that were 36.6 percent higher, on average, than those of the non-Brius nursing homes in the same county during 2015, the most recent year for which data is available. NUHW included in its analysis only those nursing homes with complete 365-day reporting data.
(4) Lease Agreement for San Rafael Healthcare & Wellness Center in Marin County. Shlomo Rechnitz signed this 28-page lease agreement, dated August 7, 2012, on behalf of the tenant (“Eretz San Rafael Properties, LLC”), which served as a “middleman” property firm.
(5) Sublease Agreement for San Rafael Healthcare & Wellness Center in Marin County. Shlomo Rechnitz signed this 3-page sublease agreement, dated November 1, 2012, on behalf of both the middleman (“Eretz San Rafael properties, LLC”) and the subtenant (“San Rafael Healthcare & Wellness Centre, LP”).
(6) San Rafael Healthcare and Wellness Center’s rental payments for 2012 and 2016. Since Brius took over this 54-bed facility in 2012, its rental payments have nearly tripled from $152,535 in 2012 to $421,177 in 2016. This document contains one-page excerpts from the facility’s “Long-Term Care Facility Integrated Disclosure and Medi-Cal Cost Reports” documenting these payments. The reports are filed with California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning & Development and are available at https://siera.oshpd.ca.gov/FinancialDisclosure.aspx
(7) CDPH’s $15,000 Fine against San Rafael Healthcare & Wellness Center for staffing violations. On June 8, 2017, the California Department of Public Health imposed an administrative penalty and $15,000 fine on the facility for violating California’s minimum nurse staffing requirement, which requires nursing homes to provide residents with a minimum of 3.2 hours of nursing care per patient per day.
(8) Master Lease Agreement for Brius’ nursing homes in Humboldt County. Shlomo Rechnitz signed this 86-page lease agreement, dated March 3, 2011, on behalf of the tenant (“Eureka-LET, LP”), which serves as a “middleman” property firm. See Exhibit B (page 107 of 110) for the Allocated Minimum Rent that the property owner charged a middleman firm for each of Brius’ five nursing homes in Humboldt County. See Exhibit H (page 110 of 110) for an “Organizational Chart” describing the ownership shares held by Shlomo and Tamar Rechnitz in Eureka-LET, LP.
(9) Sublease Agreement for Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center in Humboldt County. Shlomo Rechnitz signed this 3-page sublease agreement, dated March 3, 2011, on behalf of both the middleman (“Eureka-LET, LP) and the subtenant (“Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center, LP”).
(10) Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center’s rental payments for 2010, 2012 and 2016. Rental costs at this 99-bed facility nearly tripled after Brius took over in 2011. Specifically, the facility’s rental payments jumped from $333,530 in 2010 to $827,751 in 2012, and then further increased to $890,846 in 2016. This document contains excerpts from the facility’s “Long-Term Care Facility Integrated Disclosure and Medi-Cal Cost Reports” documenting these payments.
(11) CDPH’s $20,000 fine against Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center for staffing violations. On February 28, 2017, the California Department of Public Health imposed a “Class A” citation and a $20,000 fine on the facility for “fail[ure] to ensure adequate nursing staff to provide quality care, which caused harm to their residents as evidenced by…” (p. 2 and p. 31) The 32-page citation goes on to describe more than 25 falls by just seven residents, resulting in three residents suffering fractures (pelvis, nose, and neck), two residents being admitted to acute-care hospitals, and a laceration to the side of one resident’s head requiring eight staples. Investigators discovered that the facility required nursing assistants to care for up to three times more patients than they could reasonably handle.
(12) Theresa Kruger vs. Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center. In March 2017, Ms. Kruger filed this lawsuit in Humboldt County Superior Court (Case No. DR 170144) following the death of her husband, Randy Kruger, who died in November 2016 after developing a Stage 4 pressure ulcer “protruding to the bone” at Brius’ Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center. The lawsuit alleges that the defendants, including Shlomo Rechnitz, violated California’s laws governing elder abuse and wrongful death.
(13) Sherri McKenna vs Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center. In March 2017, Ms. McKenna filed this lawsuit in Humboldt County Superior Court (Case No. DR 170143) on behalf of her brother, Alan Dewey. Mr. Dewey, who suffered from dementia, blindness and a seizure disorder, had been living at the Brius nursing home for nearly two years before he was allegedly evicted, deposited and left alone in a local hotel room where he died four days later in October 2016.
(14) Lease Agreement for East Terrace Rehabilitation & Wellness Center in Los Angeles. Shlomo Rechnitz signed this 76-page lease agreement, dated October 31, 2014, on behalf of the tenant (“East Terrace-LET, LLC”), which serves as a “middleman” property firm.
(15) Sublease Agreement for East Terrace Rehabilitation & Wellness Center in Los Angeles. Shlomo Rechnitz signed this three-page sublease agreement on behalf of both the middleman (“East Terrace-LET, LLC”) and the subtenant (“East Terrace Rehabilitation & Wellness Centre, LP”).
(16) Monterey Healthcare and Wellness Center’s related-party transactions and related-party indebtedness in 2015. In 2015, this facility reported paying $530,382 in “interest” payments to Rechnitz’ SR Capital, LLC and YTR Capital, LLC. It also reported owing $5.6 million in debt to the two firms. This document contains a two-page excerpt from the facility’s “Long-Term Care Facility Integrated Disclosure and Medi-Cal Cost Report.”
A state appeals court has upheld a ruling denying Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz’s bid to transfer jurisdiction of a wrongful death lawsuit to Los Angeles.
The appellate ruling issued last week rejected Rechnitz’s assertion that holding the trial in Humboldt County where the death occurred would too inconvenient for himself and his wife who live in Los Angeles, according to the North Coast Journal.
The paper did not disclose if Rechnitz’s appeal mentioned that he owns a luxury yet, as documented earlier this year by Brius Watch. Nor did the story state whether Rechnitz, a self-described billionaire, took into account that the plaintiffs would have struggled to be present for the legal proceedings if they were held in Los Angeles.
Previously, Rechnitz, who has monopoly control of Humboldt County nursing homes, had argued that he couldn’t get a fair trial in the county because of negative press attention stemming from his attempt last year to close three of the homes. The closures were expected to have forced nearly 200 residents to be transferred from homes far from their families.
Local officials had accused him of using the planned closures as bargaining chips to force authorities to boost his Med-Cal reimbursements. Rechnitz’s lawyers even noted that the North Coast Journal had ranked his closure ploy as Humboldt County’s top “Dick Move” of 2016.
The case was filed by relatives of Ralph Sorensen who was admitted to Eureka’s Seaview Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, where he developed a pressure sore that became infected and ultimately led to his death last year.
The plaintiff’s are represented by the Tim Needham, who told the Journal that he was “pleased that we will have the opportunity to have this matter heard before a Humboldt County jury.” Rechnitz’s attorney did not return calls, according to the paper.
Needham’s has filed three wrongful death suits against Brius and Rechnitz in the past year. Last month, they settled a lawsuit filed by the sister of a man who allegedly was discharged from the Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center and dumped at a hotel where he died four days later. He is still representing another former resident of that home, who, like Sorenson, allegedly died after developing pressure sores that became infected.
For the second time this year, the California Department of Public Health has fined a Brius nursing home for failing to meet minimum staffing levels for nursing personnel.
The San Rafael Healthcare and Wellness Center received a $15,000 fine, the agency revealed this week, for understaffing discovered during a routine staffing audit.
This is the latest patient care violation at the 54-bed facility in Marin County, Calif. Over the last two years, inspectors have cited it for stocking the kitchen with expired food and forcing caregivers to use paper towels to dry residents because the facility had so few towels and wash cloths.
California currently requires nursing homes to provide each resident with a minimum of 3.2 hours of nursing care per day. Next July, California will raise its standard to 3.5 hours. These levels fall far short of the 4.1 nursing hours per patient day recommended by a federal report and the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care (formerly NCCNHR).
Adequate staffing levels are critical to preventing resident falls, pressure sores, infections, weight loss, dehydration and other adverse outcomes, according to studies.
Earlier this year, the California Public Health Department fined Brius’ Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center $160,000 for numerous patient care violations connected to understaffing. Inspectors found that one resident suffered eight falls in less than four months, including one that led to stint in the local hospital, while another resident fell six times in three months, one of which resulted in a broken nose.
Caregivers told inspectors that they were assigned up to three times the amount of work that could possibly be completed during a shift. Residents reported sitting in soiled clothes after waiting more than 30 minutes for staff to answer their calls to assist them to the bathroom
Understaffing at the Marin County home is hardly a secret. During a state legislative hearing last month, Maria Martinez, a veteran nursing assistant at San Rafael Healthcare & Wellness Center, told lawmakers that her facility was “understaffed almost every single day.”
The $15,000 fine stems from a CDPH inspection conducted Sept. 27, 2016.
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Brius wasted little time settling the most sensational of three wrongful death lawsuits filed recently against its CEO Shlomo Rechnitz and two of its nursing homes in Humboldt County.
Terms of the settlement with the family of Alan Dewey are confidential, the Eureka Times-Standard and North Coast Journal reported last week.
Dewey’s sister, Sherry Ann McKenna, filed the lawsuit in March alleging that the Brius-operated Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center discharged her 65-year-old brother and checked him into a local hotel where he died four days later.
McKenna claimed that Dewey had numerous health ailments including bi-polar disorder and blindness, but was nonetheless dropped off at the hotel without his full medications and little more for nourishment than Velveeta macaroni and cheese and a half gallon of milk.
At the time that Dewey was allegedly dumped at the hotel, Rechnitz had announced his intention to close the 99-bed Eureka nursing home and two others in Humboldt County in a move local officials said was a naked ploy to pressure them into once again boosting his reimbursement rates.
McKenna was represented by the Humboldt-based law firm Janssen Malloy, LLC. The firm still has two ongoing cases against Brius representing the families of Ralph Sorensen and Randy Kruger. They both died after developing Stage IV pressure ulcers that became infected, according to lawsuits that also name Rechnitz among the defendants.
Dewey’s death was written about in Humboldt newspapers and was discussed during a June 28th California’s Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing in Sacramento. After listening to members of the pubic, legislators voted 12-0 to launch an audit of Brius’ financial transactions with other companies controlled by Rechnitz and or his family members.
State Sen. Mike McGuire, who requested the audit along with Assemblymember Jim Wood, had this to say about about Dewey’s ordeal:
“In October of last year, a 65-year-old blind patient was discharged to the Clarion Hotel in Eureka after living in a Brius facility for 2 ½ years. He could not see well enough to attend breakfast, take his medication or use his key card to even enter the new hotel room that he was surprised to learn was his new home. Without notifying his family or providing a right to appeal, he was literally abandoned with a half gallon of milk, boxes of macaroni and cheese, instant noodles, and a respiratory machine without an oxygen tank. Four days later, he was found dead…”
An audio recording of the state legislative hearing is available here.