Los Angeles News

BREA Current and former residents of 17 area skilled nursing homes will share a $2 million settlement of a lawsuit that alleged the company scrimped on staff and training, providing an unacceptable level of care, a lawyer said Thursday.

The class-action lawsuit was initially filed on behalf of Warren Richardson, a former resident of the Anaheim Healthcare Center, owned by Brea-based Sun Mar.

"During his stay, he developed pressure sores as a result of understaffing," said plaintiff attorney Stephen Garcia.

Sun Mar operates at least eight facilities in Los Angeles County and six in Orange County. Each facility has 75 to 100 residents, Garcia said.

"It's pretty much impossible to figure out the average" payment, Garcia said. "The difficulty we face is that most class members are deceased. A not insignificant proportion will be deceased."

The settlement also mandates that all unclaimed monies that revert back to Sun Mar must be utilized for staffing the facilities, Garcia said.

The lawsuit alleged the company promised the elderly and their families quality care, but that corporate officers and managers at the individual homes deliberately kept budgets so tight that appropriate staffing and training could not be provided.

Garcia said family members paid for care and services that were not provided, and that the facilities were cited for deficiencies by the California Department of Health.

As an example, Garcia said that records regarding the French Park Care Center in Santa Ana indicate that as far back as Aug. 1, 2004, to July 31, 2005, it was cited for 20 deficiencies.

It was cited for 34 deficiencies from Aug. 1, 2005, to July 31, 2006, and received 21 notices of deficiencies between Aug. 1, 2006 to Oct. 31, 2007, Garcia said earlier.

Between 2005-07, the Anaheim facilities recorded 11 deficiencies, Garcia said.

Sun Mar President Irving Bauman could not be reached for immediate comment.

But in a statement, he said the company settled in order to maintain attention on its residents.

"Though we do not admit liability, we chose to settle this case because we are, and have been, firmly committed to the well-being of our residents," Bauman said. "Litigation is a long, expensive process that would take our focus away from where it belongs ... on our residents."

The $2 million settlement, that will be distributed to class members after the settlement is finalized in October, will be disbursed at a per diem rate for the amount of time that they did reside or still reside in one of the skilled nursing or long-term facilities, from Jan. 9, 2005 to Jan. 9, 2008, according to Garcia.

"A not insignificant proportion will be deceased," Garcia said. "But the reason we brought the lawsuit is because of the fundamental failure of the government. The Department of Public Health does nothing. It's in bed with the industry. It's left to private citizens willing to take up the cause."

Suanne Buggy of the Department of Public Health said the department takes all complaints of poor care "extremely seriously."

In the past 18 months, she said, the department investigated 11,000 complaints state-wide, with 99.4 percent investigated within 10 days and levied almost $7 million in fines. The department, in the same time period, made 8,500 routine inspections, Buggy said.

If the facility receives a notice of deficiency, the operators are required to submit a plan of correction and it is "incumbent" on them to implement it.

She could not address specifics regarding the numbers of deficiencies for the various years at the French Park facility, but said that "there are different categories of violations."

She said there have been six complaints concerning the facility so far in 2008, on such issues as infection control, client neglect and quality of care, but the status of the complaints, and whether they were substantiated, was unclear.

Garcia said the lawsuit was filed on a consumer protection theory that bars companies from making false representations regarding the nature of services.

He said attorney fees will not come out of the $2 million settlement, but his fee of about $150,000 will be paid by the company separately.

"We appreciate that Sun Mar is stepping up to the plate and taking action to ensure its compliance with such important regulations as maintaining minimum staffing," he said.

According to Garcia, Bauman agreed to the appointment of an independent monitor, selected by Garcia, who will undertake quarterly inspections of select Sun Mar facilities, because Sun Mar management and staff are committed to providing the best possible care to its residents.

"The elder and infirm adults and their families at Sun Mar's (17) facilities can hopefully now be assured of quality care, and Sun Mar has the opportunity to improve the level of quality care it offers its residents," Garcia said. "Should they not, the auditor will act vigilantly."

(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)