State Investigates Home for the Elderly : Oxnard: Officials at the county’s largest board and care facility for senior citizens say they have tried to rectify each complaint.

A rash of complaints has prompted a state licensing agency to investigate hiring and training procedures at Channel Islands Gardens in Oxnard, the county’s largest board and care facility for the elderly.

Since March 13, the state Social Services Department has cited the facility 29 times for violations of health codes ranging from failure to clean bathrooms and kitchens to restraining a client to her bed, according to inspection records.

The number of citations is substantially higher than for any other facility in the county and has raised concern among state and county officials who oversee long-term care facilities.

The facility’s hiring and in-house training records are being reviewed to see if staff there is properly trained, said Ron Loux, a supervisor at the Community Care Licensing Division of the state Social Services Department.

“To have a lot of serious types of ongoing complaints shows basically that something is wrong,” he said, adding that the review should be completed within a week.

However, J.P. Fernandez, assistant administrator at Channel Islands, defended the facility, saying the staff is well trained and has made an effort to address each complaint raised by the state.

“We try to accommodate everyone on every level,” Fernandez said. “We want to work with” the state. “We want to improve the place.”

Jean Nickel, an ombudsman with the Ventura County Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, said staff at the facility has repeatedly ignored or delayed addressing the problems identified by her office.

She said the residents in the 210-bed facility are not adequately cared for and are allowed to go for weeks without clean clothes or a bath. In addition, she said, all residents are usually fed the same meals whether they are diabetic or require a low-salt diet.

“These people are not treated, in my opinion, with any dignity,” Nickel said. “They are not given patients’ rights.”

During an interview, one resident told The Times that the staff is so poorly trained that she was recently given someone else’s medication.

“It’s not getting any better,” said the woman, who requested anonymity.

Fernandez said the staff tries to meet the needs of the clients. However, he said the facility is not a nursing home and his staff does not have the right to force residents to maintain good personal hygiene habits.

“We cannot force anyone to take a bath,” he said. “This is a self-care facility. We have to respect a client’s privacy and rights.”

Nickel said that of the 54 board and care facilities in the county, Channel Islands has been cited most often by the state. She said she knows of several large facilities in the county that have gone a year with only one citation.

“There is no excuse for poor service,” she said.

Nickel is one of three full-time ombudsmen. The program handles complaints raised by residents in long-term care facilities, including nursing homes and residential facilities in private homes. It then refers all problems to the Community Care Licensing Division.

Fifth District County Supervisor John Flynn said he learned last week of the complaints made about Channel Islands from staff at the ombudsman program. He said he has assigned a member of his staff to study the concerns.

Any citations made by the Community Care Licensing Division stem from violations of state health and safety codes for residential care, Loux said. The citations usually require the facility to repair the violation within a specified period of time, he said.

If the citation is not addressed after a second inspection, the agency can assess a fine of up to $50 for each day the violation is not corrected, he said.

Loux said he does not know how many fines have been assessed against Channel Islands in the last year.

He said Channel Islands has three outstanding citations, including failure to house a non-ambulatory resident in a room that is properly equipped for someone unable to walk without support. The facility has until Oct. 18 to address the citations, he said.

Fernandez said all the violations against Channel Islands have been addressed.

According to a state inspection report, Channel Islands was cited for one violation on March 13 for placing a restraining vest and wrist straps on a client who reportedly had fallen out of her bed several times.

Channel Islands was cited on May 29 for six violations, which included a messy kitchen and laundry room and dirty floors.

“Laundry areas were being left unattended with bleach and other cleaning products accessible to clients for which it could be a danger to,” according to a state inspection report.

On June 17, the facility was cited for six violations, including a rat trap that was left in the kitchen. “The rat trap was still in the kitchen in the same place it was during my last visit, even though I had asked the administrator to have it removed,” a report said.

On Sept. 11, Channel Islands was cited once for failing to clean up cat feces strewn on the floor of a resident’s room.

Amparo Rivera, a Ventura resident, told The Times that she became concerned about the care offered at Channel Islands soon after she placed her 84-year-old mother in the facility in May.

“There are a lot of ugly things that go on there that people don’t complain about,” she said.

Rivera said that a month ago her mother began to complain about a rash on her neck. When Rivera looked closer, she found that her mother had head lice.

“We were poor, but we were always clean,” she said, referring to her family.

After several complaints, Rivera said the staff shampooed her mother’s hair but failed to remove the dead lice eggs that remained in her hair.

Rivera complained again. “I stormed in there like hell on fire,” she said. The dead lice eggs were later removed, she said.

Stella Quintana, an Oxnard resident, said she became concerned about the care soon after she registered her 86-year-old father at the facility in January.

She said her father does not like to be bathed and the staff does not make enough of an effort to get him in a tub. “Why should I have to bring him home and give him a bath when they should do that,” she said.

Quintana said her father is able to care for himself, but he spends most of his time in the “Alzheimer’s wing” of the facility. “It’s so bad in there that you feel like throwing up,” she said. “I keep telling them if they clean every day it wouldn’t be so bad.”

The resident who told about getting the wrong medicine said head lice is a common problem at Channel Islands.

She said a fellow resident was injured a week ago when a staff member accidentally splashed head lice medication in her eye. When the woman complained and asked to be taken to the hospital the staff ignored her pleas, she said.

After further pleas, the woman was taken to a local hospital the following day and has since been examined by an ophthalmologist, according to the resident. The woman was told she would recover fully, the resident said.

NEXT STEP After the state Social Services Department completes an investigation of complaints of health code violations at Channel Islands Gardens in Oxnard, the department’s Community Care Licensing Division could then request an interview with the facility’s head administrator to discuss remedies. If officials feel the facility is not making progress in complying with regulations, license revocation procedures could later be initiated.