Beverly Enterprises Taken Off Probation
The nation’s largest nursing home chain, Beverly Enterprises, was taken off probation in California on Thursday by state health officials who said the company has generally improved patient care at its nursing homes in the state.
The action winds up a lawsuit in which the state accused Beverly of providing care so poor that it caused or contributed to the deaths of nine patients. The lawsuit was settled in 1986, with Beverly put on probation by the state for two years and fined an unprecedented $724,000.
Officials at the Pasadena-based chain, whose 1,038 homes house more than 100,000 patients nationwide, Thursday hailed the conclusion of the company’s probationary status for its 84 California homes as a sign of “definite, dramatic improvement.”
The action comes at a time when the company is fighting for its economic survival while fending off charges in other states of illegal labor practices and bad patient care.
During the last few months, Minnesota health officials have initiated action to revoke the licenses of all 42 of Beverly’s nursing homes after repeated health-care deficiencies at two Minneapolis-area facilities.
At the same time, hearings have begun in a massive case brought against Beverly by the National Labor Relations Board accusing the company of more than 200 labor law violations at 36 nursing homes in six states. Prosecutors in Missouri are continuing their investigation into possible criminal neglect of patients at a St. Louis-area nursing home that Beverly no longer owns.
While Beverly’s situation in California has clearly improved, the company has by no means received a clean bill of health from the state.
Since June, state health officials have fined Beverly’s Novato Convalescent Hospital in Northern California more than $130,000 for patient neglect that led to an excessive number of bedsores and falls among residents as well as a “one-inch laceration” in the vagina of a 79-year-old Alzheimer’s disease patient who had been given a bath Aug. 21 by a male nurse’s aide.
Probation Continued
And state officials are continuing for two more years the probationary status of another Beverly home, Julia Convalescent Hospital in Mountain View. Health department records show that several years ago inspectors declared that ants had been reported crawling over patients and had even entered one woman’s respiratory system through her tracheotomy wound.
Problems at Julia and other homes in 1985 prompted the state to file its landmark lawsuit against Beverly threatening to prohibit the company from opening any more homes in California.
The settlement of that lawsuit--in which the company admitted no liability--stipulated that Beverly homes, in the aggregate, would have to provide a level of care equal to that provided, on average, by all other homes in the state.
The company narrowly passed its first year of probation, ending in October, 1987, by compiling an aggregate score of 51.1 points compared to a statewide average of 53 points. (The lower the score the better the care.)
During the probationary second year, which ended in October of this year, state health officials said that Beverly compiled an aggregate score of 50.9, compared to a statewide average 52.5.
These scores are averages that do not reflect what are often great fluctuations in individual home care.
In announcing Beverly’s score Thursday, state Health Services Director Kenneth Kizer said: “This settlement has resulted in improved quality of patient care in Beverly Enterprises facilities-- and in nursing homes in general--throughout California. The settlement sent a signal to other California nursing homes that the Department of Health Services will not tolerate poor patient care.”
Beverly’s corporate assistant vice president, Bill Ihle, said, “We feel today’s news is clearly very good news for the company.”
He said the company has also been buoyed recently by economic reviews of the company from several financial analysts and by the recent upgrading of the company’s bonds. He said Standard and Poor’s recently upgraded the company’s bonds from a triple C rating to a triple C plus.
Beverly, which was once an extremely profitable company and the darling of Wall Street financial analysts, has encountered serious financial difficulties during the last two years.
The company lost $30.4 million last year on revenues of $2.1 billion and lost an additional $12.3 million in the first nine months of this year.
As for charges of poor patient care, Ihle said the company is fighting Minnesota’s attempt to revoke the chain’s licenses there and has disputed allegations of poor care at Beverly’s home in Novato.
