The Western Convalescent Hospital, a skilled nursing facility located in Los Angeles, received 68 Class B citations for unlawfully transferring residents from the facility without proper notice in April 2014. Each of the citations carried a $2,000 fine, for a total of $136,000. The citations were issued in June 2014.
Prior to the illegal transfers at issue in these citations, the facility failed to comply with a federal requirement that it be equipped with a supervised automatic sprinkler system by August 13, 2013. The federal requirements were announced in August 2008, giving Western Convalescent Hospital five full years to install a compliant sprinkler system. It failed to do so and was cited by the California Department of Public Health for this violation on December 11, 2013.
The Western Convalescent Hospital transferred the residents in April 2014 to enable a construction project to install sprinklers. In each of the 68 citations, the facility was cited because it failed to comply with a California law requiring it to give residents at least 30-day advance written notice prior to the transfer out of the facility. Its written notice also failed to give an expected date for the residents’ return to the facility. These failures violated the rights of each of the 68 residents who were transferred.