Convalescent Hospital Fined $45,000 for Violations

State health investigators have issued four serious citations and levied fines totaling $45,000 against Meadowlark Convalescent Hospital in San Diego for its failure to properly care for elderly patients.

One of the cases involved an 85-year-old incapacitated veteran who was suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The man was kept in Meadowlark for three months, and did not receive the medical treatment he needed.

“By (the hospital) failing to notify the (Veterans Administration) that such care could not be rendered, the patient sustained serious physical harm as evidenced by the condition of his body wasting away,” a state health report said.

The patient is now being cared for at a VA facility.

Joan Dowling, regional administrator for the state Department of Health Services, said state investigators were sent to Meadowlark after they received a complaint.

As a result of their findings, investigators began a more in-depth inspection Wednesday, Dowling said.

In addition to the four $10,000 Class A citations, Meadowlark also received three minor Class B citations amounting to $5,000 in fines. All the violations related to poor patient care and nutrition services, Dowling said.

Meadowlark is operated by South Coast Care Corp. of Huntington Beach, which also runs the troubled Bristol Care Center in Santa Ana. Bristol Care was recently slapped with $80,000 in fines after a surprise inspection found unsanitary conditions, including numerous cockroaches, hot water at unsafe temperatures and a patient with serious, untreated bedsores.

“We’ve been having problems with (South Coast Care) since the beginning of the year,” Dowling said.

San Diego Convalescent Hospital, another South Coast Care facility, was fined $1,000 this week for violations of nursing standards in the treatment last month of a 92-year-old man who later died at the facility.

State health inspectors received a complaint about the nursing staff’s alleged failure to promptly notify a physician when the condition of Walter Maxmillian Andre quickly deteriorated the night of June 21.