State Finds Violations at Nursing Home

State licensing officials have found “serious violations” involving patient care at Palomar Convalescent Center in Escondido, but they and hospital officials say the violations can be cured and have not led to any patient deaths.

The 96-bed skilled-nursing facility is owned by the Palomar Pomerado Hospital District, which scheduled a press conference for today to discuss the violations.

“We don’t think they are all that serious,” said district spokesman Mel Knoepp. “We have suspended two employees while we investigate this, but we’re fully confident that we have already corrected or will be able to correct the deficiencies cited.”

Knoepp declined to discuss the deficiencies cited by state inspectors until today’s press conference.

Donna Loza, a supervisor in the licensing office of the state Department of Health Services, said her office found “some serious deficiencies” involving patient care at the nursing home.

But Loza said she was precluded from discussing them in detail until the hospital district receives a follow-up report from the federal Health Care Financing Administration, which is reviewing the state’s findings because some of the violations involve federal health-care standards.

Depending on the federal agency’s response to the state inspection, the district could be disqualified from receiving Medi-Cal or Medicare patients, Loza said.

The deficiencies were identified in a routine, annual inspection, and were not brought to the department’s attention by patients, she said.