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San Diego area SNF slapped with $100K fine

LTC Liability Monitor, March 2, 2006

An Escondico, CA, nursing home received one of California's most serious citations last week and a $100,000 fine, after a resident on an oxygen tank was left alone to smoke a cigarette. The resident caught fire and burned to death, reported The San Diego Union-Tribune. The incident triggered the fourth state accusation against Palomar Heights Care Center in three years, and was deemed accidental by the SNF's spokespeople.

But the resident, who was allegedly on fire for six minutes before a laundry worker called a code red, was visible on facility surveillance cameras and was neither attended nor wearing a required flame-retardant apron. The facility's history of incidents includes multiple cases of resident abuse, and the arrests of 12 former employees in 2004, according to the Union-Tribune.

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