AIDS Hospice Cited by State for Deficiencies

An ongoing state probe of Christopher House, Ventura County’s first AIDS hospice, has uncovered wide-ranging state health and safety code violations, state records show.

State inspectors have cited the facility for nearly 20 deficiencies that range from failing to stock enough food for residents to not adequately supervising their doses of medication, records show.

Documents made public Friday also said doctors found feces on the clothing of one of the hospice’s residents during a clinic appointment. Inspectors with the state Department of Social Services also cited the facility for failing to properly help residents shower and brush their teeth.

The violations “are all serious,” said Myron Taylor, a supervisor with the department’s Community Care Licensing Division.

A Christopher House board member said the facility has committed some violations and is working to correct the problems.

Taylor said it will take about two more weeks to wrap up the investigation and perhaps more time for the licensing division to decide whether to revoke Christopher House’s license to operate.

Taylor would not speculate on Christopher House’s fate.

Members of Christopher House’s board of directors had announced suddenly Wednesday that they would close the facility temporarily, saying they needed to make building repairs.

Board member Trisha Davis said Friday that the body decided to voluntarily surrender the facility’s license so it would not incur additional fines, which now amount to about $2,000. Board and staff members are trying to find other homes for the house’s six residents--five men and one woman who have acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

Davis, who said the closure would enable board and facility staff members to fix the problems, added that the board plans to reopen the house in two months.

“We definitely feel there are violations,” said Davis, the sister of Christopher Dye, in whose memory the hospice was opened in 1993. “We definitely feel they are serious and those things we have been diligently working on.”

But Davis said some of the citations were unfair, citing a write-up that said the facility violated personal rights by preventing residents from keeping more than $25 cash in their rooms. Davis said the money was kept in personal safety deposit boxes that each resident could get into.

“We have a house full of six people and doors are open and nothing is locked,” Davis said. “If someone steals something, we are liable.”

Davis also took issue with a citation that said the house failed to stock enough food to meet residents’ needs.

“Those men never went without food,” Davis said. “If we had to pitch in money from our own wallets, they never ran out.”

Davis attributes Christopher House’s current crisis to the difficulty in raising the $218,000 a year it needs to operate. Every year, the house has fallen at least $25,000 short in grants and other revenues, she said, which means thin resources are stretched even further.

To that end, Davis said her board has scheduled a wine-tasting fund-raiser for June 1 aboard a train that runs from Fillmore to Santa Paula.

News of Christopher House’s trouble has distressed professionals who work with AIDS patients.

“We are all very saddened, because we desperately need AIDS beds in this county,” said Patricia McDonough of Livingston Memorial Visiting Nurses Assn., which has worked with Christopher House. “We thought that Christopher House was going to be a partial solution to that problem.”

Doug Green, executive director of the social-service organization AIDS Care, agreed.

“There is a tremendous amount of goodwill,” Green said. “I think that, as often happens, the initial goodwill around the house failed to translate into effective management of the organization and the day-to-day client services.”

Inspectors began investigating Christopher House after an anonymous complaint more than a month ago about the facility’s operations. After interviews with residents and staff members, inspectors presented a list of violations to the board on May 8, asking the facility to take corrective action.

When inspectors returned Tuesday, state reports said Christopher House’s board had not submitted written plans to remedy the problems, so fines were imposed. Davis said the board submitted those plans with their letter surrendering their license on Wednesday.

Inspectors found that some residents may not be taking their medicines as prescribed because investigators found more medication in certain bottles than there should have been. Inspectors also discovered that some nurses’ aides had not received sufficient training to treat AIDS patients, records show.

Diane Seyl, a coordinator of AIDS programs for Ventura County’s Department of Public Health, echoed the comments of many, saying, “Hopefully, whatever problems they have there they can deal with them and reopen.”