Nursing Home Firm Passes Probation Test

Beverly Enterprises Inc., placed on probation by the state Health Department last year for allegedly providing substandard patient care in its California nursing homes, has narrowly passed the first of two annual quality control tests, officials announced Friday.

Maintaining that poor standards of care at Beverly homes caused or contributed to the deaths of nine patients, health officials and the state attorney general’s office last year moved against the Pasadena-based firm.

In an October, 1986, agreement, the company was placed on probation and was required for the next two years to provide a level of patient care at least equal to the average standard in non-Beverly homes in the state, or face the loss of 10 health-care licenses.

After evaluating data from the first 12-month period, health officials--using a complicated monitoring system that assigns different numerical weights to various violations in standards of care--found that Beverly homes scored an average of 51.1 points on the violation scale, compared to a statewide average of 53 points at non-Beverly homes.

‘It Was Close’

The lower the score, the better, under the state system.

“It was close,” said Paul Keller, chief of the Field Operations Branch of the Health Department Licensing Division.

“I wouldn’t call that an overwhelming difference between the statewide average and their score,” he said of the 1.9 point difference. “But I would say . . . it’s a significant improvement from where they were.”

Beverly operates 89 homes in California.

Last year state officials sought revocation of the licenses of three Beverly homes in the San Jose-Santa Cruz area that were considered by officials to provide especially poor care. At the same time, the chain was denied new licenses for six other nursing homes and a home health-care agency that Beverly had acquired or built.

Fined $600,000

But in an out-of-court settlement in which Beverly did not admit any specific allegation, the chain agreed to pay $600,000 in Health Department fines and accepted the terms of probation. In return, the state dropped revocation proceedings and granted the seven new licenses on a provisionary basis.

Those 10 licenses could still be lost if Beverly does not meet the state average standard for care during the second 12-month period, which began in October. In addition, any of the three homes in the San Jose-Santa Cruz area would lose its license if state officials discover a life-endangering violation of patient care standards during the next three years. Passing the first test allows Beverly to apply for a provisional license for new nursing homes, but a company spokeswoman said the chain has no plans for expansion in California.

Cut Back Acquisitions

Diane McCarthy, spokeswoman for Beverly’s Western Division, said the company, which owns 1,100 nursing homes nationwide, has cut back its acquisition program from more than 15,000 beds a year to 3,000 a year. Beverly’s phenomenal growth--especially from 1976 to 1986--has made it by far the largest nursing home chain in the country.

McCarthy lauded the chain’s passage of its first probationary test even though the margin was small.

“Although it’s close,” she said, “it’s very significant that, based on the kinds of allegations we received last year, we were able to perform better than the rest of the industry.”

But being barely above average should not be enough, contended Pat McGinnis of the Bay Area Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a private agency in San Francisco.

“I think that Beverly, considering their past record,” McGinnis said, “should be under an obligation to have a much better record than ever before. This doesn’t reflect that good of a record. . . . The average care in this state is not good.”