Very few people, if any, have a better reputation in Los Angeles Orthodox Judaism than Shlomo Rechnitz, but he’s getting hammered in the Sacramento Bee over the past few months.
It’s hard for me to read anything negative about Shlomo Rechnitz when I know of so many people he’s helped.
Sacramento Bee: California’s largest nursing home owner is facing a new round of government scrutiny as the FBI served search warrants last week at his Riverside facility, and two more of his former top administrators have been charged criminally by the state attorney general’s office.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller confirmed Saturday that FBI agents executed search warrants “seeking evidence in relation to alleged criminal activity” at a 99-bed facility in Riverside owned by nursing home magnate Shlomo Rechnitz.
Eimiller said she could not comment on the exact nature of the federal probe because the affidavit in support of the warrants is under seal. However, the FBI spokeswoman said it was her understanding that agents took documents, and that “patients were not removed or even disturbed” during Thursday’s raid at the Alta Vista Healthcare & Wellness Centre.
The latest investigations shine the spotlight again on Rechnitz, a 44-year-old Los Angeles entrepreneur whose facilities have been the focus of multiple local, state and federal probes, along with stepped-up scrutiny by health officials.
His stable of nursing homes in California has expanded rapidly in the last decade, giving him control of about 1 in every 14 skilled nursing beds in the state, according to a Bee investigation. With an estimated 80 homes under his control, Rechnitz has widespread influence on the quality of care being delivered in skilled nursing facilities, which serve some of the state’s most vulnerable residents.
The Bee found that homes he owned for all of last year were tagged with nearly triple as many serious deficiencies per 1,000 beds as the statewide average in 2014, according to the latest figures from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Sallie Hofmeister, a spokeswoman for Rechnitz and his facilities, said Saturday in an email to The Bee: “We are not aware of any basis for the (FBI) investigation, but are cooperating fully with authorities. We cannot comment on the specifics of the discussions with the authorities, but at this time we have no reason to believe the investigation has anything to do with patient care. Alta Vista is proud of the care and treatment it provides to its patients.”
Besides last week’s FBI raid, several Rechnitz employees are facing their own legal challenges.
The former administrator and former top nurse at one of his Orange County nursing homes were charged criminally in August in connection with the alleged abuse last year of two residents – one of two criminal cases filed by the California attorney general in August against employees at facilities owned by Rechnitz.
Alameda Healthcare & Wellness Center
3 serious deficiencies
The facility got one of its serious deficiencies after a female resident lost more than 11 pounds in four months, or 13 percent of her body weight, and inspectors observed that she appeared “thin and frail.” The resident had told staff that the food was too dry and requested extra gravy because of her “swallowing disorder” that caused her to choke more easily. Inspectors found that the dietary aide failed to notify the cook, and the resident’s weight fell to 74.1 pounds.
Gridley Healthcare & Wellness Centre
6 serious deficiencies
Decertified effective Oct. 2 and set for closure. Surveyors identified immediate jeopardy to residents four times in five months. In the first survey, investigators said a patient suffered dehydration and died, while another resident with severe chest pain complained it took staff nine hours to get him an ambulance.
Oakhurst Healthcare & Wellness Centre
4 serious deficiencies
Inspectors issued multiple deficiencies after seven residents and one staff member fell ill from a contagious infection. Surveyors found poor hand-washing by staff, improper cleaning methods and unsanitary handling of linens. The director of staff development stated she had provided infection control training, but investigators found the documents had been taken from Wikipedia – “not recognized as a standard resource for professional infection control practice.”
Pacific Rehabilitation & Wellness Center, Eureka
1 serious deficiency
All 57 residents were found to be in immediate jeopardy when inspectors discovered the facility was using seven portable space heaters in resident care areas. The building’s heating system had been malfunctioning during a cold snap, and space heaters were set on high, posing a fire risk. Inspectors found one space heater in the front lobby beneath a table, near a lighted artificial Christmas tree. Another was inside the nurses’ station between two racks of clinical records.
Presidio Health Care Center, Spring Valley
2 serious deficiencies
The facility got two serious deficiencies because of low food supplies. Inspectors found inadequate food stock to meet daily nutritional needs, or for an emergency. Two refrigerators at the facility contained only a plastic bag with a “grey colored substance” (identified by staff as five pounds of hamburger) and five gallons of milk. The third refrigerator was empty.
Roseville Point Health & Wellness Center
1 serious deficiency
A resident with “moderate dementia” and a “history of self-mutilating behavior” was burned in September 2012 after she helped herself to four cups of coffee in the lobby and spilled them into her lap. The coffee, left out for anyone, was later found to be more than 170 degrees. Inspectors determined the facility failed to provide adequate supervision for the disabled resident to prevent the injuries.
South Pasadena Convalescent Hospital
(Renamed Mission Grove Healthcare & Wellness Centre)
2 serious deficiencies
Decertified effective Jan. 5. The facility got a serious deficiency after a 67-year-old female resident collapsed and died during an inspection. Investigators found that a licensed vocational nurse and certified nursing assistant did not know how to properly administer CPR, and 10 staff members did not respond correctly when asked later about CPR guidelines. The facility received a second serious deficiency after seven mentally ill patients were found to be coming and going without proper assessment. One committed suicide in a nearby neighborhood by lighting herself on fire.
Vernon Healthcare Center, Los Angeles
7 serious deficiencies
This facility had more serious violations in 2013 and 2014 than any other owned by Rechnitz. Key concerns were poor supervision, including one resident who used a motorized wheelchair twice found lying on the ground, injured, outside the facility. The administrator told inspectors that residents leave “all the time and just never return to the facility.” She said the nursing home does nothing to check on their welfare, assuming they “had just gone back to the streets.”
Wish-I-Ah Healthcare & Wellness Centre, Auberry
3 serious deficiencies
Decertified effective Nov. 7. Rechnitz permanently closed the facility late last year. Investigators visiting the home in October called immediate jeopardy in three instances and gave Wish-I-Ah its most severe deficiency for an infection that sickened residents and staff. Surveyors also issued a deficiency over the death of a 75-year-old resident from sepsis after improperly handling her wound dressing. They cited unsanitary conditions in the kitchen, bathrooms and ice machine, as well as improper disposal of raw sewage.
Today, 24 years after the devastating blaze, California’s attorney general is holding others criminally responsible for what ultimately happened to James Populus, who died last year at age 58 after allegedly receiving “grossly negligent” care at a controversial skilled nursing facility operated by the state’s largest nursing home owner: Shlomo Rechnitz of Los Angeles.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris announced last month that her office had filed involuntary manslaughter charges against Verdugo Valley Skilled Nursing & Wellness Centre LLC in suburban Los Angeles. Two registered nurses on staff also were charged with felony abuse.
The charges were in line with a 2012 pledge by Harris that she would aggressively step up criminal prosecutions of nursing home operators and staff, although her promise did not materialize for two more years.
Rechnitz has not been charged individually in the case. Public officials in neighboring South Pasadena continue to press Harris’ office for criminal charges against another nursing home owned until recently by Rechnitz – a facility the local police chief denounced as a “cesspool” and a “community menace” while under Rechnitz’s watch.
On Thursday, at a pivotal court hearing in Pasadena, the stakes of the Verdugo Valley case were evident as eight attorneys pressed into the fourth-floor courtroom wielding overstuffed roller-bags and document boxes stacked on hand carts. New legal issues delayed the preliminary hearing until December, but the case illustrates the complexity of elder-abuse prosecutions – and the ferocity with which the battles are waged.
Sallie Hofmeister, a Rechnitz spokeswoman, said an internal investigation found no basis for the allegations. Nevertheless, she said, the facility has increased training and oversight.
Earlier this month, Rechnitz gave up his ownership stake in a South Pasadena nursing home, where the police chief had complained for months about criminal activity in and around the facility. A new ownership group has stepped in, promising changes. The Montrose facility has had similar problems, according to elder-care advocates.
At the top of the chain: Shlomo Rechnitz, a 43-year-old Los Angeles entrepreneur and philanthropist.
Since 2006, Rechnitz and his primary company, Brius Healthcare Services, have acquired 81 nursing homes up and down the state, many of them through bankruptcy court. His chain has grown so quickly that he now controls about 1 in every 14 nursing home beds in California, giving him an outsized influence on quality of care in the state.
In the past year, multiple alarms have been raised about this relative newcomer to the industry and the care provided in some of his homes. His facilities have become the target of police scrutiny, lawsuits, stiff regulatory fines and state and federal investigations that have uncovered numerous alleged violations.
…Rechnitz’s troubles were compounded this spring, when the South Pasadena facility was hit with 24 state citations and $195,500 in fines from the Department of Public Health. Cargill’s suicide, for instance, resulted in a $20,000 fine and a Class A citation for the facility’s failure to supervise a patient with a history of schizophrenia, anxiety disorder and involuntary psychiatric holds.
Rechnitz agrees that his nursing home operation has been under siege, but he offers an alternative viewpoint. He says problems with regulators began after his management company became embroiled in a legal dispute with the state over delinquent paperwork, and the relationship soured.
“The things that happened are very shocking to me,” said Rechnitz, referring to his newly contentious relationship with regulators.
“All of a sudden, we show up to court one day and there is an emergency motion that refers to us as a quote-unquote serial violator of laws. It questions if we would pass the good character requirement … It basically makes us look like the Charles Manson of the nursing home business.”
The state denies it has singled Rechnitz out or has any ulterior motives.
