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Laguna Honda, the beleaguered public nursing house in San Francisco, is asking federal regulators to indefinitely prolong their moratorium on obligatory transfers of the hospital’s frail affected person inhabitants, which is at the moment set to elevate on February 2.
Extending the hiatus would take away a Sword of Damocles hanging over Laguna Honda and permit the power to focus solely on working to regain its certification, performing chief government Roland Pickens advised the well being fee on Tuesday. from the town.
Over the summer time, 12 individuals died shortly after being moved from Laguna Honda as a part of federal regulators’ preliminary requirement that the power be closed by September. The Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies — which decertified Laguna Honda in April after state inspectors mentioned it was in a “substandard state of care” — suspended obligatory affected person transfers in July after the deaths, which have been blamed partially on “transference trauma.”
“We fought as arduous as we might to not must implement transfers,” Pickens advised the well being commissioners.
The town, which operates Laguna Honda, sued the federal company often called CMS amid public outcry over the deaths and tried to reverse the decertification altogether.
The events settled in November and CMS gave Laguna Honda one other 12 months to come back into compliance. However underneath the settlement, the compelled motion of sufferers might resume as early as February 2.
Pickens advised the well being committee on Tuesday that he requested the extension of the moratorium on December 21 and remains to be awaiting a response from CMS. He mentioned Laguna Honda additionally submitted its required revised closure plan the identical day.
“I hope it by no means needs to be applied,” Pickens advised the fee, who listened however mentioned little besides to applaud the nursing house’s efforts to concentrate on resolving the issue. Their issues.
CMS officers didn’t reply to requests for touch upon Wednesday.
Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Middle is the nation’s largest public retirement house. Since its decertification, it has not been allowed to confess new sufferers, however nonetheless has round 600 medically frail, low-income residents.
Over the summer time, Laguna Honda officers mentioned it could be unattainable to maneuver everybody in 4 months, as required, as a result of there weren’t sufficient comparable expert nursing amenities within the space. or the state to handle the advanced wants of their sufferers — and never sufficient who took MediCal, which is California’s model of Medicaid.
In the end, the power evacuated 57 individuals, 12 of whom died between 10 and 67 days later.
On Dec. 20, the California Division of Public Well being issued 12 low-level citations to Laguna Honda and fined the power $3,000 per affected person.
Pickens mentioned Tuesday that Laguna Honda is interesting the citations.
Affected person advocates attended Tuesday’s assembly and mentioned they strongly oppose compelled transfers.
“I am appalled by the entire course of,” Grey Panthers’ Artwork Persyko mentioned. “It is simply tragic what occurred to those residents.”
Some have urged the town to retaliate even when CMS orders transfers to begin once more.
“All of us assume that this wave of deaths will begin once more on February 3,” mentioned Joseph City, whose late mother-in-law was a affected person. “Do not enable the docs at Laguna Honda Hospital to launch the sufferers of their care…You must play hardball.”
Nanette Asimov is an editor for the San Francisco Chronicle. E mail: nasimov@sfchronicle.com @Twitter: @NanetteAsimov
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