$375,000 verdict against Sava Senior Care
Nate Taylor wrote an article for The Coloradoan about a recent verdict for a family against nursing home involving a resident who fell because the nursing home refused to respond to the resident's call light. The fall led to her untimely death. This happens all the time in nursing homes and is a result of understaffing. The nursing home does not want to pay for adequate and competent staff because it will hurt their profit margins. The staff becomes overworked and fails to respond to call lights.
While the family says her 87-year-old mother Doris Wolfe's November 2007 death was the hardest thing she's had to live through, a close second was the lawsuit her family endured suing Spring Creek Healthcare Center. "We're just a little tiny family of four against this huge corporation of nursing homes," Johnson said, referring to Spring Creek Healthcare Center's parent company, Sava Senior Care. "You would never, ever, ever go through (a lawsuit) for any reason other than somebody had been harmed and you felt like you had to fight that fight. It was brutal."
Sava Senior Care owns at least 185 nursing homes across the country, including Spring Creek and Fort Collins Health Care Center. They are represented by Lori Proctor. We had a case against them last November when a resident fell three times in a 24 hour period. The jury awarded us $200,000 in actual damages and $600,000 in punitive damages.
Johnson said her mother stayed at Spring Creek for 17 days to rehabilitate following back surgery at Poudre Valley Hospital. Wolfe broke her ankle the day she was supposed to be sent home.
According to an investigation by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Wolfe may have turned on her call light to request help to go to the bathroom. When Wolfe thought an "extended amount of time passed" and no one answered her request, she opted to try to walk toward her walker on her own and fell and broke her ankle. Jay Reinan, a Denver lawyer who represented the Wolfe family, said Doris Wolfe did push the button.
"As a result of staffing deficiencies, Mrs. Wolfe was left to decide between soiling herself or attempting to go to the bathroom on her own, and that eventually led to her death," Reinan said. "With a lot of older folks, dignity is important, and that's what happened to Mrs. Wolfe."
The health department investigation also indicated that Spring Creek X-rayed Wolfe's ankle and found no fracture, but a family physician looked at the X-ray results and determined it was fractured in two places.
Johnson said she hopes the jury's decision will lead to changes at the nursing home. "As scary and intimidating as it was, that's why we did this - for change," Johnson said.
Is SAVA going bankrupt? They are apparently not paying their bills and cutting their staffing hours back to dangerous levels.
Bob:
I had not heard that but it wouldn't surprise me. They seem to make sure that the nursing homes have no money so they won't have to pay judgments due to their neglect and negligence. The parent company has lots of money but they give it to the officers of the corporation.
How did you hear they were not paying bills and cutting staff?
Who is their parent company?
The parent company changes all the time. Murray Forman, Leonard Grunstein, Avi Schron, etc own and operate all the facilities through a maze of corporate shells and bankrupt LLCs.
Sue all known entities liste din cost reports, applications for license, and license and then try and figure it out.
I WORK AT ONE OF SAVA'S FACILITY IN CARMICHAEL, CA. IM A CHARGE NURSE AND LET ME BE THE FIRST ONE TO SAY THIS, THIS SAVA COMPANY CARES MORE ABOUT PAPER WORKS THAN THEIR PATIENTS AND THEIR NURSES. THE FACILITY THAT IM WORKING AT RIGHT NOW HAVE BEEN HIRING NEWLY GRAD WHO HAS NOT BEEN ORIENTED WELL TO THE FACILITY AND MY FACILITY HAVE BEEN LETTING GO THIER BEST NURSES BECAUSE THEY EITHER PUT TOO MUCH WORK ON US OR THEY DONT EVEN CONSIDER HOW MUCH HARD WORK THESE NURSES DID FOR THIS FACILITY, INTEAD THEY DOWNGRADE THEIR NURSES. OUR FACILITY "MISSION CARMICHAEL H.C." HAS THE ALL TIME LOWEST MORAL IN YEARS.... I FEEL SORRY FOR THE NEWLY ADMITTED PATIENTS BECAUSE NOT MUCH NURSE TO PATIENT CARE IS BEING DONE BECAUSE THERE IS NOT MUCH TIME TO DO THAT DUE TO "SAVA SENIOR CARE" PREFERS PAPERWORKS TO BE AND MUST BE COMPLETELY DONE! WE WILL EITHER GET WRITTEN UP OR BE DOWNGARDED IF WE DONT COMPLETE THE PAPERWORKS. IF "THEY" SAY THEY HAVE PROOF THAT WE TAKE CARE OF THESE PATIENTS? THEY EITHER "DID SOMETHING UNDER THE TABLE" TO MAKE THEM LOOK GOOD.. TRUST ME WITH THIS... IM STILL WORKING AT THIS FACILITY BECAUSE I WANT TO SHARE THESE HORRIBLE TREATMENT TO NURSES AND PATIENTS THAT THIS COMPANY DOES..
Look this is what happens when you not only cut back staff but when DHEC does not allow restraints for residents who need them!!!!!! Get real nursing homes are not equipped to give one on one care to mentally confused residents who try to get up all shift out of their chairs and out of bed. Residents ARE going to get hurt!!!Unfortunately this is just the facts!! DHEC has restricted the nurses and nursing assistants to where they are unable to care for these residents!!!
Why are they cutting back on qualified staff and training new employees? There are numerous preventative measures and safety devices to prevent the vast majority of potential falls. Proper assessment and interventions are necessary but without an adequate number of well-trained staff, injuries will result. Patient safety must come first.
DHEC does allow and authorize restraints for certain circumstances. However, restraints are not the answer. Safety devices and adequate staffing are required.