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California charges caregivers in neglect case

LTC Liability Monitor, March 30, 2005

A California court case may change the way the state prosecutes nursing home neglect, the San Diego-area North County Times reported. Twelve direct care workers at the former Sunbridge Care and Rehabilitation for Escondido East in Escondido are facing charges of criminal neglect for allegedly failing to properly reposition and hydrate an elderly resident.

The five licensed vocational nurses and seven certified nursing assistants are charged with one count each of elder neglect and falsifying medical records, and two counts each of failure to follow state regulations. This is the first time California has charged the individual workers and not the facility as a whole for neglect.

Prosecutors want to hold individual nursing home workers liable for criminally improper care. "We want [caregivers] to know that accountability is awaiting them just around the corner," said Collin Wong-Martinusen, director of the attorney general's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse. The California Association of Health Facilities and the California division of the Service Employees International Union have argued on behalf of the caregivers, the Times reported.

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