Vista

A Vista nursing home hit hard by regulators in the wake of three residents’ deaths was temporarily barred Wednesday from evicting Medi-Cal patients who want to stay there.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Patricia Benke granted a temporary restraining order sought by the Legal Aid Society of San Diego on behalf of 10 to 20 patients who were threatened with eviction early next week from Golden Age Leisure Gardens.

State and federal regulators stripped the home of its Medi-Cal and Medicare certification, meaning it cannot receive payments from those programs, after inspectors found more than 30 violations of health-care regulations at the 176-bed home.

Regulators said the home provided inadequate care to three patients who died there earlier this year. But Legal Aid attorney Rosemary Bishop said the families of the patients facing eviction are satisfied with their relatives’ care.

The restraining order bars the home from evicting patients before a hearing Sept. 26. Legal Aid contends that state regulations require that the home give the patients more time to find other quarters. Lawyers for the residents also say the home’s loss of certification for government payment programs was intended to sanction Golden Age, not to harm the residents.