Neglect of your loved ones at a nursing home is painful to witness for any family member. When it crosses the line to harming your family member, you will have a legal cause of action against the nursing home. If you are considering filing a lawsuit against the nursing home, you will need an attorney on your side. At the Nursing Home Law Center, we help families that find themselves in this situation.
This nursing home is a 184 bed for-profit facility that offers short and long-stay care to residents of the Northern California area. The Medicare/Medicaid approved facility is located at:
587 Rio Lindo Ave,
Chico, CA 95926
(530) 345-1306
In order to be licensed as a nursing home in California, nursing homes must follow state laws and regulations. These are enforced by the Department of Public Health, who has the power to fine nursing homes or revoke their license if they do not follow these laws. In addition, as a condition for participation in the Medicare and Medicaid programs, nursing homes must follow federal laws. In a worst-case scenario, nursing homes can be removed from these programs, which is the same as effectively shuttering the nursing home.
While this facility has not been recently fined by the federal government and has only received small infrequent state fines, it did receive an important penalty from the federal government in August 2018. Windsor Chico Creek received a payment denial from Medicare as a result of a complaint inspection. This means that, for a time, the facility was barred from receiving reimbursements from the federal government for new residents. A facility will only receive this sanction when there are violations and deficiencies that are not adequately addressed through corrective action.
In this particular complaint inspection, the facility failed to ensure that all residents’ pain medications were provided to ensure adequate pain control. This failure meant that one resident did not receive several necessary doses of pain medication, resulting in intense pain over a period of time.
Care issues have continued into 2019. The facility recently received a citation as a result of a complaint inspection because it failed to provide the proper pressure ulcer care for a resident. When a resident does develop a pressure ulcer, the facility must follow the proper care routine to ensure that the pressure ulcer does not get worse since it can eventually cause sepsis. This requires frequent changes to the bandages. Here, staff did not change the bandages as necessary and the pressure ulcers grew worse. The same complaint citation also found that staff made medication errors by failing to give one resident several needed doses of an antibiotic while also giving another resident extra doses of an anticonvulsant medication.
In general, the statistics indicate that this nursing home has a materially higher rate of pressure ulcers than the average facility. Staff must be vigilant about preventing these from developing by continuously shifting the resident’s position every two hours. When residents are left in the same position for too long, it causes skin breakdown that leads to pressure ulcers. At the same time, the nursing home also reports that nearly one in four residents see their ability to move independently worsen after moving to this facility. The rate of resident falls at this nursing home is also more than double the average of other California nursing homes. While falls are not completely preventable, nursing homes can reduce their occurrence by having the required fall prevention plans for each resident who is a risk of falling.
While the 18 health citations are well higher than the state average, this actually represents an improvement from past inspections, where Windsor Chico Creek received upwards of 30 health citations. However, among the violations in the 2018 inspection report was the finding that the nursing home did not do enough to control the aggressive and violent behavior of one residents towards three other residents. This resident punched another resident in the chest and hit a third one in the forehead with a cup, which caused bleeding. Facilities must deal with residents who are a known risk of abuse and they are legally responsible for any harm that residents cause to their fellow patients. Here, staff did not adequately supervise the violent resident.
If you have any questions about Windsor Chico Creek and how you can file a legal claim for compensation against the nursing home, call the attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center at (800) 926-7565 to set up your no-risk case consultation. The phone call is free and we would represent you on a contingency basis, meaning that you only pay us if we are successful in helping you to some sort of financial recovery. Contact us today! We help families take control of their situation and attempt to right any wrong done to their loved one at a California nursing home.
Attorney Anthony Lanzone
Licensed in California
Chicago Nursing Home Injury Lawyer Nursing Home Law Center LLC Home