Veterans Home to Lose $320,000 in Federal Funds

In an action that will result in a loss of $320,000 in federal funds, the state Department of Health Services reported Monday that the troubled state-run veterans home in Barstow has neglected aging residents, has failed to investigate theft of their money and has not afforded them basic dignity.

The federal government will cut off payments of $80,000 a month for at least four months. The money had gone to the state to help pay for the care of about 180 aged and disabled military veterans at the California Veterans Home.

The latest report marks the third time in as many months that the Barstow home, advertised as a “state of the art” facility when it opened less than four years ago, has been subject to disciplinary action.

The state Department of Health Services last month fined the home a record $64,500 for a series of violations involving patient care issues and the deaths of two aged veterans.

In the latest report, done on behalf of a federal agency called the Health Care Financing Administration, state health inspectors found 26 deficiencies, including instances in which patients fell because of inadequate care and had alcohol-related accidents.

The federal health care agency will cut off payments totaling $80,000 a month for a minimum of four months--at least $320,000. The state Department of Veterans Affairs will have to make up the deficiency by either cutting back programs or seeking more money from the Legislature.

“We’re working as hard as we can to get this fixed, and we will,” said Jerry Jones, spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis’ Department of Veterans Affairs. Davis personally ordered the investigation after an anonymous tip that at least one patient had died under questionable circumstances.

“I don’t think it’s an unmanageable facility,” Jones added. “We have had some problems and we’re working on them.”

One of the recurrent allegations in the latest report, a 112-page document based on an inspection conducted in May, is that Veterans Home workers have failed to afford veterans dignity.

State health inspectors reported watching as state Veterans Affairs workers failed to cover a naked man as they were taking him to a bath--”in full view of other residents and visitors.”

In another incident, health officials learned that on the day of the inspection, the Humane Society had canceled a visit in which volunteers had planned to bring dogs to lift the residents’ spirits. Instead of postponing the session, staffers got batteries for a stuffed teddy bear.

“The stuffed teddy bear,” the report noted, “was being used a replacement for the pet therapy activity.”

The report noted that the facility’s management failed to properly investigate allegations by residents that their money was being stolen. One resident complained of having $800 taken from a locked night stand. Another said $160 was stolen in May.

The report says that one resident was placed on the antipsychotic drug Haldol but that medical staff failed to consult with him or his family first, in violation of regulations aimed at limiting the use of such drugs.

Other patients had bedsores, and there was no indication that physicians had been told of them. Still others experienced rapid weight loss, or fell because staff members neglected to provide adequate care.

The health department cited other problems ranging from Veterans Affairs staff failing to deliver mail to residents, to residents’ complaints about poor food, to officials’ failure to properly investigate the cause of bruises on a man housed in the ward for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Previously, the state Department of Health Services cited the Barstow home after a veteran allegedly choked to death on a chunk of broccoli at lunch. Veterans Affairs officials insist that he died of a heart attack. A second man died in a diabetic coma after his doctor was not told of the patient’s skyrocketing blood sugar levels, the department said.

In late May, the federal Department of Veterans Affairs weighed in, terminating room and board payments of about $300,000 a month for 269 patients. The federal department accused the home of providing “substandard” patient care, failing to properly maintain records and experiencing an unacceptable level of management turnover.

At the time, state veterans department officials expressed confidence that their plan of corrective action would be accepted by the federal agency and that federal reimbursement payments would quickly resume.

Jones, the state Veterans Affairs spokesman, said Monday that the department’s action plan has been accepted by the federal veterans office, and that payments are expected to resume late this month, contingent on the home passing a final inspection.

Last week, the home’s second-ranking manager, Deputy Administrator William Rigole, resigned at the request of interim Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bruce Thiesen. Thiesen gave no reason for his action.

A department spokesman said Rigole returned to his former Civil Service rank and was appointed administrator of residential care for the elderly at the Barstow home.