L.A. County Slow to Probe Nursing Home Complaints, State Statistics Show

Statistics released this week on investigations of complaints of abuse, neglect, and poor conditions at California nursing homes and other health facilities show Los Angeles County lagging behind other areas of the state. Los Angeles County is the only county that handles such investigations itself. Elsewhere, the program is run by the state’s Department of Public Health. The county’s responsibilities will probably be scaled back under a new contract with the state beginning in July. That agreement is expected to provide more money for investigations — but not as much as county officials say they would need to do all the work currently required. The statistics reported by the state this week for the first time broke down the performance by district. It showed that Los Angeles County took the longest time, on average, to finish investigating complaints of patient mistreatment or inadequate care. Statewide, the average number of days that complaints were open was 255. In Los Angeles County, it was 352. The only other district in the state that approached that number was San Francisco, where the average was 342 days.

Source/more: Los Angeles Times

David Wingate is an elder law and estate planning attorney in Frederick and Montgomery, Counties, Maryland. The law practice consists of wills, power of attorneys, trusts, Medicaid and asset protection.