Nursing home named in suit

Deirdre Newman

Advocates for the elderly and a union filed a lawsuit Thursday in

Orange County Superior Court against the owner of a group of nursing

homes, including one on Victoria Street, alleging that they are too

short-staffed to properly care for their residents.

The California Alliance for Retired Americans and Service

Employees International Union No. 250 sued the Ensign Group, alleging

violations at 13 of its 26 facilities in the state, including

Victoria Healthcare Center in Costa Mesa and Sea Cliff Healthcare

Center on Florida Street in Huntington Beach.

The major claim in the lawsuit is that Ensign does not meet

minimum staffing levels set by state law -- 3.2 skilled nursing hours

per day for each resident. The lawsuit asks for a court to require

the facilities to increase staffing levels, order restitution for

residents and to levy fines for Ensign’s allegedly illegal

activities.

“The reason that staffing in these homes is so important and why

the state has set these minimum levels is that nursing home residents

are very fragile -- their well-being depends a great deal on how much

nursing staff is available to them,” union spokesman Jennifer Kelly

said.

The Ensign Group, based in Mission Viejo, owns the facilities

named in the lawsuit, but they are operated by affiliates of the

company, spokesperson Greg Stapley said. He denied that the company

violates staffing regulations.

“We consistently comply with the law in every respect and do our

utmost to make sure the care we give is at or above any established

standards,” Stapley said.

Victoria Healthcare Center provides care for long term residents

and helps people recover from surgery, injury or serious illness.

The union branch has been monitoring Ensign closely since it is

one of the fastest-growing nursing home owners in the state and has a

poor record for patient care, Kelly said. It got information on

staffing levels in Ensign-owned homes through federal and state

documents that require labor costs to be reported, Kelly added.

The alliance, which represents 700,000 seniors in California,

joined the lawsuit because it is concerned about nursing homes

throughout the state, president Nan Brasmer said.

“We’ve been working with [the union] on some legislation that was

signed by the governor .... This is just an extension of that issue

in that these nursing homes are not even staffing at the required

level,” Brasmer said. “Some of the patients are being shortchanged as

far as the care they are able to get at these nursing homes.”

The union branch has been hounding Ensign for years and has been

trying to get its employees to join its union, Stapley said.

“Our employees have refused,” Stapley said. “This is the second

time they’ve sued us for this. It’s just another shot in their

continuing harassment.”

The first lawsuit was over one of Ensign’s facility in Sonoma. The

union is not actively organizing in any of the nursing homes named in

the lawsuit, Kelly added.