Category Archives: Brius LLC

Brius ordered to reinstate illegally fired workers with backpay

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A judge has ruled that Brius Healthcare Services violated federal law when it fired pro-union caregivers at its Marin County facilities just two days before a 2015 vote to unionize.

On April 20, Judge Amita Baman Tracy ordered the Brius-operated Novato Healthcare Center to reinstate five caregivers (a Licensed Vocational Nurse and four Certified Nursing Assistants) who were illegally fired. The judge also ordered Brius to pay them tens of thousands of dollars in back salary and benefits. Four of the five caregivers were active supporters of joining the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW).

In her 31-page ruling, Tracy, an administrative law judge, found that two nursing home administrators did not give credible testimony about the events leading up to the firings. Tracy also found it “troubling” that the facility administrator discussed allegations against the workers with an anti-union consultant hired by Brius to defeat the unionization effort.

“This ruling is a victory for workers who put their heart and soul into caring for frail seniors even as they face cruel and retaliatory treatment by an employer that puts profit above the well-being of patients,” NUHW President Sal Rosselli said. “It’s time for management to finally honor its employees’ hard work and dedication with a contract that provides safe staffing and a living wage.”

The ruling is the latest black eye for Brius, which has faced increased scrutiny from federal and state authorities for widespread patient care violations. In 2014, then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris sought to block Brius from purchasing 19 nursing homes, calling Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz a “serial violator” of nursing home rules. Last year, the California Department of Public Health blocked Brius from permanently operating five additional homes, noting that the company had amassed 386 patient care violations over a three-year period.

Most of Brius’ approximately 80 nursing homes are not unionized, and Brius management made clear they didn’t want Novato’s caregivers to join NUHW, which also represents workers at a Brius facility in San Rafael, Calif.

Managers at the 181-bed Novato facility handed out anti-union fliers and forced employees into captive meetings with four anti-union consultants. In one case, a manager illegally interrogated a worker about his union leanings, the judge found.

The anti-union campaign climaxed shortly before the scheduled vote when Brius officials illegally fired five caregivers, including four who were vocal leaders of the unionization drive. After Brius fired them, NUHW filed an unfair labor practice complaint arguing that the firings were an illegal attempt to intimidate workers from voting to join the union.

In ruling for NUHW, Tracy found ample evidence that the firings were illegal and politically motivated.

In addition, Tracy found that the facility’s administrator, Darron Treude, and another manager, Teresa Gilman, did not give credible testimony. Treude “testified nervously, evasively, and provided vague and contradictory answers,” Tracy wrote. “Gilman’s testimony simply appeared implausible,” she added.

“It feels so good to know that we won, and that Brius will pay a big price for trying to ruin our careers and reputations just because we supported the union,” former Novato worker Angel Sabelino said. “I’m grateful that NUHW fought so hard for us and sent a message to Brius that they can’t get away with trying to silence their workers.”

Tracy ordered Brius to do the following:

1)    Offer employment to all five employees it wrongly terminated.

2)   Compensate them for pay and benefits they would have received had they not been fired in Oct. 2015.

3)   Remove any reference of the incident from the workers’ personnel files.

4)   Post a notice inside the Novato facility declaring that the National Labor Relations Board has found that Brius “violated federal law” and will “not interrogate you about your union sympathies” or “restrain, or coerce you in the exercise of your rights under … the National Labor Relations Act.”

Despite management’s illegal acts of intimidation, workers at the 181-bed facility voted to unionize in 2015 and are fighting to improve staffing levels and establish better pay and benefits so the facility can recruit and retain a stable, experienced workforce.

[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Novato.pdf”]

Report: Brius failed to follow through on Humboldt pledge

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Brius Healthcare Services CEO Shlomo Rechnitz has failed to follow through on his pledge to work with local officials to improve health care for frail seniors, according to a report in the Eureka Times-Standard.

Late last year, Rechnitz told the paper that he would set up a charitable foundation to help pay for treatment of the elderly. He also pledged to work “with local stakeholders to determine how we can better care for our elderly and ensure that they have the necessary care and services locally.”

However, according to the Times-Standard, Rechnitz has failed to set up the foundation and neither Brius nor its administrative company, Rockport Healthcare Services, has followed up with local officials.

“We have not heard from any representative from Rockport in months,” North Coast State Sen. Mike McGuire told the newspaper. “As we have seen, Rockport has a track record of empty promises and it is deeply concerning that they haven’t followed through on any of the commitments that they made during this artificial crisis that they created.”

Rechnitz, who operates every nursing home in Humboldt County, threatened to close three of them last year. The closures, which Rechnitz claimed were needed because his homes were losing money, would have resulted in nearly 150 patients being transferred out of Humboldt County and far from their families, according to the Times-Standard.

Rechnitz later relented, closing only one of his five Humboldt County homes,  but Suzi Fregeau, Humboldt County’s long-term care ombudsman, told the paper that Rechnitz is still understaffing his facilities and failing to provide adequate care.

Rechnitz’s homes in Humboldt County have been fined over $160,000 this year for patient care violations stemming from understaffing. They have also been named in three wrongful death lawsuits. Two of the lawsuits allege that patients died from Stage 4  pressure ulcers that became infected, while the third accuses Brius of dumping a patient at a local hotel where he died four days later.

NUHW requests investigation into Humboldt patient death

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The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) last week formally requested a government investigation into the death of Randy Lee Kruger, who died in November after developing a pressure ulcer while a patient at Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center.

The 99-bed nursing home is operated by Brius Healthcare Service, the largest nursing home operator in California and the only operator in Humboldt County.

NUHW filed its complaint with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) after learning that the agency was not investigating Mr. Kruger’s death. CDPH is responsible for licensing, monitoring and regulating the state’s nursing homes.

Last month, Mr. Kruger’s wife filed a wrongful death lawsuit alleging that Brius committed elder abuse by failing to adequately care for her husband. Mr. Kruger lived at the nursing home for 15 months, where he developed a Stage IV pressure sore that ultimately penetrated all the way to his tailbone, according to the lawsuit.

On November 2, 2016, he was transferred by ambulance to a nearby acute-care hospital where he died seven days later from a bone infection and pneumonia, says the lawsuit.

Kruger’s wrongful death lawsuit is one of three filed in Humboldt County since November against Brius nursing homes and Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz.

Last August, CDPH fined Brius’ Seaview Rehabilitation and Wellness Center $40,000 in connection to its care of Ralph Sorensen, who also died of complications stemming from a pressure ulcer, according to press reports, government records and his family’s lawsuit. The agency’s investigation, however, fails to mention Mr. Sorensen’s death.

The CDPH is reportedly investigating the care Alan Dewey received at the Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center. According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of his sister, the nursing home discharged Mr. Dewey and left him at a hotel where he died four days later. Mr. Dewey had “multiple complex medical problems” including dementia, blindness, encephalopathy, bipolar disorder and chronic pain, says the suit. Last October, Brius officials allegedly “deposited” him at a Clarion Hotel with his medications, “a half-gallon of milk, instant noodles, and Velveeta macaroni and cheese.” Mr. Dewey was found dead four days later.

Below is NUHW’s letter requesting an investigation into Mr. Kruger’s death:

[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/NUHW-ComplaintVsEurekaRehabWellness_2017-04-20.pdf”]

 

Humboldt County Brius home hit another wrongful death lawsuit

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A Brius-owned nursing home in Humboldt County evicted a 63-year-old patient suffering from dementia and left him alone in a hotel room where he died four days later, according to a lawsuit filed last month by an attorney for the man’s sister.

Alan Dewey had been living for nearly two years at the Eureka Rehabilitation & Wellness Center, which state regulators fined $160,000 earlier this year for substandard care that stemmed from chronic understaffing. The nursing home also has been named in two other wrongful death lawsuits since November.

Dewey was admitted to the  home in late 2014, according to his complaint filed by Amelia F. Burroughs of the law firm Janssen Malloy LLP. He had suffered a “significant brain injury in 1975 and a stroke, which affected his vision.” He also had “a seizure disorder and multiple complex medical problems.”

On Oct. 14, 2016, the nursing home “deposited” Dewey at the Clarion Hotel in Eureka with his medications, “a half-gallon of milk, instant noodles, and Velveeta macaroni and cheese,” according to the complaint, which described his hotel stay this way:

“Dewey could not see well enough to attend breakfast in the lobby of the hotel; could not see well enough to sort and take his medications appropriately, and could not see well enough to sort and take his medications appropriately, and could not see well enough to use the key card to enter his room or navigate his surroundings.”

He was found dead inside his hotel room on Oct. 18.

At the time that Dewey was allegedly dumped at the hotel, Rechnitz had announced his intention to close the 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.

Dewey’s sister, Sherri McKenna, told Courthouse News she thinks her brother was discharged as part of Rechnitz’s effort to clear the nursing home given “the onerous requirements for resident transfers.”

The lawsuit names Brius CEO Shlomo Rechnitz, and several of his corporate entities as defendants for wrongful death and dependent adult abuse. “The facts are horrific,” Burroughs told the news outlet. “The corporate entities running the facility made decisions that I believe really hurt (Dewey).”

Burroughs’ firm is also 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.

[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/McKenna-Wrongful-Death-Lawsuit.pdf”]

Two Brius homes hit with wrongful death lawsuits

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The families of two men who died after developing pressure sores in Brius nursing homes have filed lawsuits against the company and its CEO Shlomo Rechnitz. 

The suits, filed in Humboldt County Superior Court, claim the deaths could have been prevented had Brius adequately staffed the homes, according to a report in the Eureka Times-Standard and a copy of court records.

Ralph Sorensen and Randy Kruger both died after developing pressure ulcers that became infected, according to the lawsuits. Kruger resided at the Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center and Sorenson resided at the nearby Seaview Rehabilitation and Wellness Center.

The lawsuits come just one month after the California Department of Public Health issued $160,000 in fines to the Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center for patient care violations stemming from low staffing levels and poor oversight.

Pressure ulcers form when patients spend too much time in one position, which is often the case at nursing homes that are not adequately staffed. The families’ attorney, W. Timothy Needham of the firm Janssen Malloy LLP, told the Times-Standard that it appeared that both facilities “are being consciously understaffed.”

In Kruger’s case, the Brius facility failed to properly treat a pressure sore that formed on his tailbone last August, attorneys alleged in court papers. Three months later Kruger died of a bone infection and pneumonia.

“You have to realize what (they) have literally done is they’ve allowed this person to rot to the point that they’ve got a hole in their back so large you can put your fist in all the way to their backbone,” Needham told the Times Standard.

The lawsuit, filed by Randy Kruger’s wife, seeks damages for wrongful death, negligence, and elder abuse under California’s Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act. The suit, attached below, states:

“The continuing pattern of abuse, as alleged above, was a direct result of defendants’ conscious plan to operate Eureka at inadequate staffing and patient care levels to wrongfully maximize their business profits, including patient dumping to avoid incurring costs associated with transfer to another appropriate facility under the law.” 

In Sorenson’s case, the Seaview facility never alerted his family or doctor that he had developed an ulcer,” attorneys alleged in court papers.

State regulators fined the Brius facility $40,000 in connection with Sorensen’s death, but Brius is appealing the fine, the paper reported.

[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Sorensen-Lawsuit.pdf”] [gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Kruger-Lawsuit.pdf”]

Inflated rents could explain Shlomo Rechnitz’s latest nursing home citations

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What happens when nursing homes are chronically understaffed?

In a Humboldt County facility, one patient had to pull herself up after a fall, another sat in soiled clothes for more than a half hour, and a blind person suffered a broken arm after falling while walking unassisted to the bathroom, according to a report released this month by the California Department of Public Health.

The agency issued $160,000 in fines to Shlomo Rechnitz’s Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in connection to those – and several other — violations. And the culprit was under-staffing, according to the Eureka Times Standard, which obtained a copy of the report.

“In its review of the Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, the California Department of Public Health found that as much as three times more staff time was needed to provide adequate care for the residents. Nursing home staff also acknowledged in interviews with the state that more care providers were needed.”

Rechnitz said he’ll appeal the fines. But can he explain how he appears to be siphoning money out of the facility through a rental arrangement that allowed him to charge his nursing home a highly-inflated rent?

Before Rechnitz bought the nursing home in 2011, the previous owner paid an annual rent $333,530, according to state records.

With Rechnitz at the helm, the annual rent more than doubled to $827,751 – a 148 percent increase.

Isn’t higher rent bad for business? Not if you’re Rechnitz. That’s because instead of having his nursing home pay rent directly to the property owner, Rechnitz created another company to rent the building. Then he turned around and had that company rent it to the nursing home.

What happened to the difference between what Rechnitz’s company paid the landlord in rent, and the $827k that company received from Rechnitz’s nursing home? It certainly doesn’t appear to be going toward staffing.

In fact, state figures show that the annual number of nursing hours worked at the facility dropped from 92,158 in the year before Rechnitz bought it to 87,587 in 2015, the last year for which figures are available.

Shlomo Rechnitz faces new complaints at San Rafael nursing home

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One would think that Shlomo Rechnitz could afford to stock enough towels and wash cloths for the residents of his San Rafael nursing home.

Not only is Rechnitz a self-declared billionaire, but property records show that he appears to be siphoning money from the facility — and many others — by paying an inflated rent to a company that he also owns.

Yet, Rechnitz, whose firm Brius Healthcare is the largest nursing home operator in California, keeps cutting corners in San Rafael. Last year, he was cited for stocking his cupboards with expired food including “thickened apple juice.”

And, earlier this month, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services cited the facility for failing “to provide enough supplies of clean towels and wash cloths.”

One staffer told an inspector that that sometimes “they use paper towels and tissues” to dry residents. Another staffer stated that when they run out of towels and wash cloths, “they have to use whatever they have … like bedsheets, gowns and pillowcases.”

While Rechnitz’s staffers were drying residents with paper towels and bedsheets, he appeared to be maximizing his profit through a rental arrangement he uses all over California.

Instead of renting the San Rafael facility directly from the property owner, Rechnitz in 2012 set up a separate company to rent it. Then he had that company sublease it to the nursing home for a much higher price.

Before Rechnitz bought the facility, the operator reported having paid the property owner an annual rent of $153,952.

But after Rechnitz bought it, he had his firm “Eretz San Rafael” initially pay the property owner an annual rent of $259,200. Then he turned around and had that company  sublease the property to his nursing home for $388,800.

As you can see, Rechnitz signed for both companies.

What happened to the $129,600 in profit that Rechnitz’s firm “Eretz” pocketed in the exchange — and the money it keeps pocketing year-after-year?

We’d like to hear Rechnitz explain how it doesn’t end up in his pocket – and why he can’t find the money to pay for enough towels and wash cloths.

[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/SanRafael-Citation-Lack-of-towels.pdf”]

Brius attorney’s misdirection on Shlomo Rechnitz’s Gulfstream jet

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It’s hard to explain how a nursing home operator — even the largest one in California — has the money to buy a $3.6 million luxury jet. But the attorney for Brius Healthcare CEO Shlomo Rechnitz pulled out every stop to obfuscate the potentially damning connections between Rechnitz’s operation of the jet and his repeated failure to meet basic standards of care.

In a statement given to McKnight’s Long Term Care News, the unnamed attorney for Rechnitz said that the jet is owned by SR Administrative Services, “a company owned by Rechnitz but unrelated to his healthcare operations.”

What the lawyer didn’t say is that Rechnitz leased the jet to another one of his estimated 150 subsidiary companies: SR Capital. And there is documented proof that SR Capital is not only related to his healthcare operations — it collects interest payments from his nursing homes that in 2015 amounted to more than $1.5 million.

Click here for the paper trail of one Rechnitz-controlled nursing home making an interest payment to SR Capital.

The North Coast Journal also reported on a Rechnitz-controlled nursing home in Eureka, Calif. paying SR Capital $47,663 in 2015.

For more data on Rechnitz’s jet and a copy of the NUHW report, click here.

 

State Investigators Hit Brius Nursing Home with $160,000 in Fines

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A Brius nursing home in Humboldt County was hit this week with eight fines totaling $160,000 in connection with what one former staffer calls “nightmare” conditions, the North Coast Journal reported Wednesday. The California Department of Public Health, which licenses and investigates the state’s nursing homes, levied the fines for patient-care, staffing, and administrative violations at the 99-bed Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center.

Below, BriusWatch.org has posted a screenshot from the agency’s website regarding the fines.

A second Brius facility, Granada Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, “was also hit with state enforcement actions and has been asked to pay $4,000 for two separate incidents of failing to self-report abuse,” according to the Journal.

The eight fines, each of which carry a $20,000 administrative penalty, were levied against Brius’ Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center, which Brius and its CEO Shlomo Rechnitz have operated since 2011.

The Journal’s Linda Stansberry reports that the facility was visited by state inspectors in December and “has been dogged by allegations of understaffing and improper patient care.” Stansberry cites one former staff member who said the facility’s understaffing is “a nightmare” and “said patients were ‘covered in feces’ and suffering falls, especially during the night.”

The article also describes the experience of the son of a former patient at Eureka, who filed a complaint with the state agency about inadequate staffing and an unsafe environment that “contributed to his mother’s fall and her placement in hospice care in August 2016.”

See the North Coast Journal’s full article “Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center Fined $160,000 by State” for more details.

The following screenshot from the California Department of Public Health’s website

 

describes two of the eight fines levied against Eureka Rehabilitation and Wellness Center this week.

Brius Healthcare’s Shlomo Rechnitz globetrotting on private jet

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Less than a year before California Attorney General Kamala Harris labeled him a “serial violator” of nursing home laws, Shlomo Rechnitz made a purchase that further called into question his commitment to provide proper skilled nursing care.

Rechnitz, whose firm Brius Healthcare is California’s largest nursing home operator, spent approximately $3.6 million on a luxury jet in 2013, which he operates through a subsidiary that receives direct payments from his nursing homes. Over the following three years, that plane circled the globe more than 20 times, while Rechnitz racked up nearly 400 patient care violations and threatened to evict nearly 200 elderly patients claiming his homes were losing money.

Revelations about Rechnitz’s Gulfstream G-IV – including its flights to international destinations like Brazil, Portugal, and Israel – are contained in a report issued this week by the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). The details come from previously unpublished records obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration and other government agencies.

Altogether, Rechnitz has spent an estimated $8 million to purchase and operate the jet.

Rechnitz’s spending habits should concern all Californians because he controls one out of every 14 nursing home beds in the state. And there is ample evidence that he is not spending enough to properly care for residents.

A Sacramento Bee investigation found that in 2014 Rechnitz’s homes were “tagged with nearly triple as many serious deficiencies per 1,000 beds as the statewide average.” One of his Los Angeles homes has been cited in connection with three separate resident deaths since 2009.

In July 2016, the California Department of Public Health blocked Brius from obtaining licenses to operate five nursing homes due to the company’s widespread violations of California’s patient-care laws. Harris labeled Rechnitz “a serial violator” in an emergency motion seeking to block it from buying 19 nursing homes three years ago. And the federal government barred three Brius nursing homes from treating Medicare patients due to severe violations of federal standards.

The report on Rechnitz’ private jet comes on the heels of recent articles raising questions as to whether he is siphoning money out of his nursing homes. The North Coast Journal reported that Rechnitz’ nursing homes in Humboldt County appear to pay inflated rent to  companies that he controls and that over the course of two years they paid $117,000 more to Rechnitz’s medical supply firm for “routine supplies” even though their admissions dropped 30 percent.

NUHW’s report – entitled “Misplaced Priorities at 40,000 Feet” – includes recommendations for policymakers and the public, as well as links to more than 100 pages of source documents obtained from government agencies.

[gview file=”https://briuswatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/NUHW-BriusJetReport_Feb2017.pdf”]