Convalescent Home Sued to Collect Fine Imposed for Death

The state is suing a Santa Ana convalescent home, seeking to collect a $25,000 fine imposed after an elderly patient died because of what investigators allege was staff negligence--one day after she was admitted in 1986.

The death occurred at Country Villa Plaza Convalescent Center, a facility that one state health official has described as “a dog of a place,” where another resident died the year before from the same cause, the state alleges: choking on food because of staff failure to follow a doctor’s orders.

The resident who died in 1986 was a brain-damaged woman dependent on others “for all activities of daily living,” including eating, according to the suit filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. Officials declined to identify her further.

Had Difficulty Chewing

The woman was admitted Sept. 26, 1986, according to the lawsuit. The woman had difficulty chewing, so her physician specified that she was to receive a diet of finely chopped food and was to be supervised when she ate, court records said.

The following day, however, an aide who was feeding the woman “did not follow the patient’s care plan,” and the diet she was fed was not “in conformity with the order of the physician,” the suit alleged.

After the woman began to choke, paramedics brought her to a hospital, where she died, court papers said.

Six pieces of food--some as large as a quarter and including fat, fruit and meat--were found in the woman’s trachea, the suit said.

After investigating the death, inspectors from the state Department of Health Services issued a Class AA citation--the most severe type--and imposed a $25,000 fine, the maximum allowed by law when code violations committed by a nursing home’s staff lead to the death of a resident.

The owner of the facility, Country Villa Service Corp., contested the citation, forcing the state to sue to collect the fine, the lawsuit said.

John Libby, executive vice president of Country Villa Service Corp., said Friday that the home’s officials properly reported the incidents surrounding the woman’s death and were surprised when they were cited seven months later, in April, 1987.

“We turned a hellhole into an excellent facility,” he said.

“I don’t care what kind of facility you run, you can get a double-A citation. It’s one thing to get one. It’s another thing to be convicted of it. . . . If there is a double-A citation, that’s a very serious charge.

“And to nonchalantly come back seven months later and say ‘You guys are guilty, after you properly reported this.’ . . . We, at that time, were flabbergasted.”

Jacqueline A. Lincer, a district administrator for the state Department of Health Services in Santa Ana, described Country Villa as “a troubled facility” and “a dog of a place.”

Lincer said Country Villa “almost got decertified” because it has had a high number of violations in the past.

The 145-bed nursing home, on Hemlock Way in Santa Ana, has changed hands several times over its 23-year history. Its former names include Bristol Care Center and Santa Ana Bristol Convalescent Hospital.

In 1985, a 41-year-old man suffering from Huntington’s disease died less than a month after he was admitted. He too choked on food after staff failed to follow doctor’s orders in feeding him, according to state health department inspection records.

As they did in the 1986 case, authorities issued an AA citation and imposed a $25,000 fine. The facility contested that action, and the matter is still pending in the courts.

Lincer said Country Villa is “much improved” under its present ownership by Country Villa Service Corp., which took over in June, 1985.

“I’m not saying it’s a great facility, but it has improved,” she said.

Under the law, the state must sue to collect a contested fine.

According to a study released in May by the state’s Little Hoover Commission, about one-fifth of the fines imposed on nursing homes are collected.

Critics of state nursing home regulations have said owners can easily escape paying fines through procedural delays and loopholes in the law.