Edgemoor Hospital Upgrade OKd : Board Approves Plan to Aid Troubled Geriatric Facility

A sweeping plan aimed at turning around the fortunes of San Diego County’s troubled Edgemoor Geriatric Hospital was accepted Tuesday by the county Board of Supervisors.

The plan includes policy changes, some of them already implemented, and a detailed proposal for as many as 40 new employees at the Santee hospital.

The supervisors also approved in concept a proposal to make the hospital’s administrator more accountable, and authorized the county’s staff to seek as much as $6 million in state loans to rehabilitate the aging and deteriorating facility.

Finally, the board agreed to take the first step toward upgrading the institution from a “skilled nursing” to a “sub-acute care” hospital. That change could almost double the reimbursement the county receives from the state and federal governments for treating patients at the facility.

Edgemoor, to which the county’s poor and aged patients turn when they have nowhere else to go, is under investigation by the county Grand Jury, county Civil Service Commission, the state auditor general and the state Department of Health Services.

Each is independently examining an aspect of the 323-bed hospital and its administration by the county. The county has been fined $35,000 for several violations at Edgemoor in the past year, two of which involved patients’ deaths.

A board of supervisors’ conference April 30 addressed Edgemoor’s problems, and Chief Administrative Officer Clifford Graves’ short-term plan accepted Tuesday was the result of that hearing.

Graves’ plan calls for hiring 17 new nurses and 7 medical records workers beginning next week and employing a consultant to develop a medical records department for Edgemoor.

In budget deliberations later this summer, supervisors will consider adding another 15 employees to the hospital’s staff, including a dietitian, five food service workers, three occupational and recreation therapy aides, and four custodians.

The plan also detailed several changes in the county’s management of a locked mental health ward at Edgemoor. The manager of the ward will now report to the Edgemoor administrator instead of to other Health Department officials.

When the county officials hire a new administrator for Edgemoor to replace the transferred Francoise Euliss, that person will be in a so-called unclassified position. That change removes the administrator from the civil service system and, Graves said, will make the new head of Edgemoor more accountable for the management of the hospital.

Graves will report back to the supervisors July 9 with a long-term plan for Edgemoor.