He Keeps Tabs on Valley’s Nursing Homes

On his way home from work, Joseph Vargas sometimes wonders if his fellow commuters think he is crazy.

“I’m talking to myself, to remind myself of everything I have to do,” said Vargas, 53. As the San Fernando Valley regional coordinator for the WISE Senior Services Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, he indeed has a lot on his mind.

The consumer program, supported by government grants and private donations, checks on conditions at health-care facilities that serve senior citizens, and it looks into complaints it receives about those facilities.

During the hourlong drive from the agency office in Reseda to his home in Pico Rivera, Vargas talks into a tape recorder about the complaints that have landed on his desk during the day. He might talk about which volunteer should handle a case, or which agency should handle a referral.

Vargas oversees 28 volunteers--mostly retirees--who try to make unannounced visits to each nursing home and hospital in the Valley every seven to 10 days. They also check on complaints at smaller board-and-care facilities.

Vargas’ position is salaried, but he began with the program in 1991 as a volunteer.

The region covered by the agency is 252 square miles and includes more than 400 skilled-nursing facilities, hospitals and board-and-care homes. Vargas estimates these facilities have a total of about 15,000 beds.

“It’s an overwhelming amount,” he said.

Tact and establishing a rapport with health-care staff is a big part of the job, he said. The ombudsman has to be seen as a resource to help the facilities offer better care.

“The minute you walk in, the whole place knows that you’re there,” said volunteer Herb Kriegstein of Reseda, who has been with the program for four years. He started volunteering after his mother-in-law had to be placed in a nursing facility. Even if a facility has a good reputation, he said, “You have to keep on top of them.”

According to Vargas, the best ombudsmen are good listeners who can be nonconfrontational advocates when meeting with administrators.

They also should be good observers, picking up details such as whether or not a bedridden patient has had his or her position changed every two hours--a state rule--or if a call button has fallen between the bed and the wall, out of the patient’s reach.

At the monthly ombudsmen meeting, about 20 of the volunteers pass around popcorn and drink coffee as they compare notes on how to deal with issues as diverse as Medicare fraud, the right to die, institutional food, over-medication and educating residents about their rights.

“On the whole, the nursing homes are very good in the Valley,” said one volunteer who asked that her name not be printed. Nursing-home conditions have steadily improved in recent years, Vargas said.

But abuses and violations are found.

“I’m very concerned about the elderly,” said Phyllis Indianer, another volunteer. “They don’t have a voice and they’re the fastest growing part of the population.”

Staff problems can often be traced to workers being overwhelmed and stressed out, she said. Often the problems are easily handled.

“They’re all human beings,” Kriegstein said of facility staff. “They all make mistakes.”

For more information on becoming an ombudsman, call (818) 881-6460.

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