State regulator fines Motion Picture & TV Fund -- again

The Motion Picture & Television Fund, a nursing home and hospital for retired entertainment industry workers in Woodland Hills, continues to be dogged by questions about the quality of care.

California's Department of Public Health recently assessed a $10,000 fine against the fund for failing to prevent multiple falls by a patient in the facility's unit for Alzeheimer's patients.

The patient fell seven times from Feb. 3 to May 17, 2010, fracturing a left shoulder and pelvic ring, according to a report on the incident.

The accident is one of several that have raised questions about the facility's level of care in the months after the fund announced plans to shut down the nursing home and hospital. Many residents refused to leave, and the board has since reversed its decision and is working on a plan to turn over the operation to Catholic hospital chain Providence Health & Services.

Last year, the agency imposed a $7,500 fine against the fund for failing to prevent a serious head injury sustained by an 87-year-old resident. The state also is investigating the death of an 89-year-old wheelchair-bound patient who fell down a staircase at the long-term care facility.

"During the past 15 months the Long Term Care Resident Family Council has written many letters to fund administrators detailing the MPTF’s increasingly inhospitable organizational culture, which resulted in falls, injuries and even death among our family members,'' said Dean Butler, a member of the council, which advocates on behalf of the nursing home's residents. "Our concerns were routinely dismissed as inaccurate, irrelevant and disruptive ... However, the emerging pattern of Department of Public Health fines against the MPTF is public confirmation that our concerns have been both justified and accurate."

Representatives of the fund declined to comment.

 -- Richard Verrier

 

 

 

Comments

[Finger In The Dike]

There have certainly been terrible, heartbreaking mistakes made during the past several years, but last week's announcement of the MPTF's intention to partner with Providence Health & Services offers the possibility of a fresh beginning under the leadership of CEO Bob Beitcher. We can only hope that the new beginning will include the departure of those who were the architects of policies that created a culture of fear and mistrust on the Wasserman Campus rather than the hope and dignity embodied in the founder's "we take of our own" mission.

[m.g.]

Who is responsible? Have they been held accountable?