Nursing homes must provide adequate supervision for their residents at all times. If they fail to do so, they can be held responsible on several different levels. One way to hold a nursing home accountable is to file a civil lawsuit against them for the damage that your family member has suffered. In order to do so, you will be effective legal help, and this is where the attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center can help.
This nursing home is a 128 bed for-profit facility that offers short and long-stay care to residents of the Sacramento area. The Medicare/Medicaid approved facility is located at:
501 Jessie Ave
Sacramento, CA 95838
(916) 922-8855
Windsor Care Center of Sacramento
The federal government has long held an integral role in regulating nursing homes. The federal government will work in close concert with the states in order to carry out inspections of nursing homes and take actions as necessary to punish them for breaking the law. State inspectors are basically the federal government’s eyes and ears on the ground, and they investigate complaints and carry out the inspections. The federal government pays the state to send their inspectors to the facility and ultimately receives the results of these visits along with the recommendation for any necessary action.
Windsor Care Center of Sacramento was recently given a one-star rating by Medicare for numerous deficiencies assessed on both its annual report as well as complaint inspections of the facility. This rating is the lowest one that is given by Medicare and is indicative of subpar care at the facility that does not comply with numerous regulations. For this particular facility, there was a noticeable dropoff in the quality of care based on a spike in the number of health citations and complaint inspections from 2018 to 2019. This nursing home is part of a statewide chain that has many underperforming skilled nursing facilities.
While this facility has only received several small fines from the State of California, the number of complaints filed with the state over the past several years have been staggering. There are 128 beds in the facility, not all of which are occupied. In 2018, 196 complaints were filed with the state. This is on top of the 167 complaints filed in 2017 and 203 in 2016. While the fact that a complaint is filed is not conclusive on its own, the amount of complaints is alarming.
Since November 2018, there have been a total of 15 different complaint investigations that have resulted in a citation from the federal government. These are inspections that have been initiated in order to investigate a specific complaint. One of the recent investigations that resulted in a citation involved an incident where one resident inappropriately touched another. There was a known risk for this behavior and there was a 1:1 care ordered because of this risk. However, the nursing home had to pull the staff member who was providing that care because they were short staffed at the time.
On another occasion, in an attempt to restrain a resident, staff tied them to their wheelchair with a gait belt. The reason for this was that the staff member did not want the resident falling when they were being fed. Restraints are sometimes necessary, but they must not be a first resort and their use must be justified and documented according to a plan. Further, the means of restraint must not encroach on the resident’s dignity in a manner that can cause them emotional harm.
Another complaint citation cited Windsor Sacramento for failing to provide adequate supervision to ensure safety when the resident had already fallen several times. When a resident falls, it requires a reevaluation of the fall prevention plan and any necessary changes to be made. Some residents require heightened awareness and this one should have necessitated it, but they were not placed on that plan. These are just a sampling of the complaint inspection reports since July 2018, and there have been many more documented instances of deficient care.
In the November 2018 inspection report, there were a dozen different violations that touched upon quality of life or care deficiencies. Along with resident assessment and care planning deficiencies, these have the highest potential to cause injury to a resident. Quality of life can impact a resident because issues of hygiene can cause infection and dignity matters can cause emotional damage.
Sometimes nursing homes feel like they are above the law, which is manifested in the way that they treat their residents. A nursing home lawsuit is one reminder to them they laws do apply to them. In addition to holding the nursing home accountable and sending them the message that this level of care is unacceptable, a nursing home lawsuit can also get your family financial compensation in the form of a settlement or jury award. The attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center can help you through this process and act as your counsel and counsellor when you are forced to take action against a nursing home where your loved one resided. Contact or call them today at (800) 926-7565 or click further here to schedule your free no-risk case assessment.
Attorney Anthony Lanzone
Licensed in California
Chicago Nursing Home Injury Attorney Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home