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Indybay Feature
Santa Cruz Pleasant Care Slated to Close and no one is listening.
Low income nursing center closing due to bankruptcy, greed, poor care, and a faulty system.
Although the mainstream media has not noticed yet, or simply does not care, one of the few remaining low income centers in Santa Cruz for the aged & disabled is slated for closing, Pleasant Care. Unless a miracle happens between now and July 2nd, it will close. The courts and the corporate office all agree on the chances of this facility staying open being more then slim.
The problem of lack of beds for our poor disabled and aged is already such a horrible problem. The county has largely ignored it. The root problem is the system itself, and only real local leadership in sync with money and national policy change will have any large-scale change. Fixing it on just a local level would mean spending, and using new out of the box solutions. In our society, our government seems to put money far above human beings, especially ones that cannot fight back.
Pleasant Care is a large corporation. They have 26 such facilities, mostly in California. All of there assets and facilities will be auctioned off in part of a fast track bankruptcy on July 2, 2007. I have read all the court transcripts. Yet when I placed a call to the local nursing home, they were barley aware of what was going on. The corporate office new exactly what was happening, Santa Cruz Pleasant Care is slated to be closed after July 2nd. This means patients and there families have little knowledge, and time to prepare.
The reasons for the bankruptcy, the ramifications on the poor and disabled will be discussed in length on Robert Norse’s Bathroom Broadsides radio show this Sunday July 24, 2007. Tune in at 101.1FM, or stream it from www.freakradio.org. Showtimes are 9:30-1:00 pm.
No major media has, as of the writing of this, written a word about the bankruptcy and closing of the local facility or the ramifications it will have on 3,000 disabled poor people across California. Our own local leadership are either unaware, which means they are not doing their job, or do not care. I am not holding my breath for Santa Cruz County leaders to address this issue.
The reason for the bankruptcy stems from faulty conditions, poor health care, ultimately leading to refusal of payment from Medi-care and Medi-Cal at three facilities. Pleasant Care has had many facilities being investigated. Pleasant Care went from pleasantly making 200 million a year off the backs of poor disabled people, to owing money to there only creditor, Bridge, who swiftly cut them off. They also owe the IRS, and dozens and dozens of other heath care providers.
The facts and ramifications from this bankruptcy are thick, and cannot be all addressed in one article. We will be speaking at length about the closing of the Santa Cruz Pleasant Care on Sunday the 24, 2007. If you have a loved one in Pleasant Care, you will want to hear this show. If you care about the poor and disabled in your community, you should tune in, call in and participate. If you work there, please call in. Robert Norse’s Bathroom Broadsides radio show this Sunday July 24, 2007. Tune in at 101.1FM, or stream it from here. Studio Line: (831) 427-3772.
I will be posting a more detailed article prior to the show as well as copies of some court transcripts.
The problem of lack of beds for our poor disabled and aged is already such a horrible problem. The county has largely ignored it. The root problem is the system itself, and only real local leadership in sync with money and national policy change will have any large-scale change. Fixing it on just a local level would mean spending, and using new out of the box solutions. In our society, our government seems to put money far above human beings, especially ones that cannot fight back.
Pleasant Care is a large corporation. They have 26 such facilities, mostly in California. All of there assets and facilities will be auctioned off in part of a fast track bankruptcy on July 2, 2007. I have read all the court transcripts. Yet when I placed a call to the local nursing home, they were barley aware of what was going on. The corporate office new exactly what was happening, Santa Cruz Pleasant Care is slated to be closed after July 2nd. This means patients and there families have little knowledge, and time to prepare.
The reasons for the bankruptcy, the ramifications on the poor and disabled will be discussed in length on Robert Norse’s Bathroom Broadsides radio show this Sunday July 24, 2007. Tune in at 101.1FM, or stream it from www.freakradio.org. Showtimes are 9:30-1:00 pm.
No major media has, as of the writing of this, written a word about the bankruptcy and closing of the local facility or the ramifications it will have on 3,000 disabled poor people across California. Our own local leadership are either unaware, which means they are not doing their job, or do not care. I am not holding my breath for Santa Cruz County leaders to address this issue.
The reason for the bankruptcy stems from faulty conditions, poor health care, ultimately leading to refusal of payment from Medi-care and Medi-Cal at three facilities. Pleasant Care has had many facilities being investigated. Pleasant Care went from pleasantly making 200 million a year off the backs of poor disabled people, to owing money to there only creditor, Bridge, who swiftly cut them off. They also owe the IRS, and dozens and dozens of other heath care providers.
The facts and ramifications from this bankruptcy are thick, and cannot be all addressed in one article. We will be speaking at length about the closing of the Santa Cruz Pleasant Care on Sunday the 24, 2007. If you have a loved one in Pleasant Care, you will want to hear this show. If you care about the poor and disabled in your community, you should tune in, call in and participate. If you work there, please call in. Robert Norse’s Bathroom Broadsides radio show this Sunday July 24, 2007. Tune in at 101.1FM, or stream it from here. Studio Line: (831) 427-3772.
I will be posting a more detailed article prior to the show as well as copies of some court transcripts.
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Thursday Jun 21st, 2007 12:06 PM
I read about a death and bad health care in the news, and a brief mention of bankruptcy, but nothing on what your speaking of. I remember well the closing of Capitola Care Center, and the disastrous results. I can only imagine what will happen when we loose another. The place sucks, thats a fact, but without a replacement, many lives will be horribly altered, displaced and left with little to no recourse. Where are our elected officials? surly after the last calamity they should know and be doing something about this. How are people to bid on an auction they do not know about?
Why did the sentinel not print a story. Yesterdays news tomorrow.
Good work for beating them to the punch, but this shows how far the media has lost touch with its own community.
Why did the sentinel not print a story. Yesterdays news tomorrow.
Good work for beating them to the punch, but this shows how far the media has lost touch with its own community.
Thursday Jun 21st, 2007 2:23 PM
The process for bidding was disclosed in the bankruptcy hearing, and sign up sheets were sent to... some people. Hospitals, etc. The Bankruptcy is just starting to hit the news but in a very vague fashion, it is briefly mentioned in this article from today about the death of a man in a Pleasant Care facility, and how every Pleasant Care facility is under watch or investigation.
Here is a link to the latest death from... not such pleasant care. As much as I hate these poverty pimps, shutting them down without an alternative is worse then leaving them open. Fixing them would be a good approach, but it is clear from reading the entire court transcripts, they care only about the money and not the patients. A sad statement. They want to sell all as fast as possible. I was told by Pleasant Care Corporate, there are no bids for the Santa Cruz center, its slated to close. The people who work there, had not got to reading the document I have been reading for two days. They only know of the bankruptcy, not the ramifications. Although I am sure, as they did at Capitola Care Center, rumors will start flying, as the patients are always told very little.
pleasant care
Here is a link to the latest death from... not such pleasant care. As much as I hate these poverty pimps, shutting them down without an alternative is worse then leaving them open. Fixing them would be a good approach, but it is clear from reading the entire court transcripts, they care only about the money and not the patients. A sad statement. They want to sell all as fast as possible. I was told by Pleasant Care Corporate, there are no bids for the Santa Cruz center, its slated to close. The people who work there, had not got to reading the document I have been reading for two days. They only know of the bankruptcy, not the ramifications. Although I am sure, as they did at Capitola Care Center, rumors will start flying, as the patients are always told very little.
pleasant care
Thursday Jun 21st, 2007 5:30 PM
The program will later be archived at http://www.radiolibre.org/brb/brb070624.mp3
Call-in number: 831-427-3772.
Questions before the show: 831-423-4833.
Call-in number: 831-427-3772.
Questions before the show: 831-423-4833.
Friday Jun 22nd, 2007 8:39 AM
Here are some older links to articles about the closing of Capitola Care Center. Its pertinent because the same thing will happen here, but worse, because there have been no more beds added since this closure and Pleasant Care has more then twice the number of beds, 222.
You will read that state nurses came in to run the place after patients were found to be recieving improper care, causing physical harm to the residents. The sad thing was, these highly skilled traveling nurses, who do this for a living, shutting down bad nursing homes -- had Capitola Center running like a well oiled machine, only to then have to close it.
State-ordered shutdown of Capitola Care comes Thursday
Capitola nursing home closes for good
Care providers fight 'transfer trauma'
You will read that state nurses came in to run the place after patients were found to be recieving improper care, causing physical harm to the residents. The sad thing was, these highly skilled traveling nurses, who do this for a living, shutting down bad nursing homes -- had Capitola Center running like a well oiled machine, only to then have to close it.
State-ordered shutdown of Capitola Care comes Thursday
Capitola nursing home closes for good
Care providers fight 'transfer trauma'
Friday Jun 22nd, 2007 2:08 PM
Though the mainstream media has reported much abut the neglectful death in a Pleasant Care owned facility, most of the fifteen articles barley mention the bankruptcy, and the many closures to come. Pleasant care is the second largest Low income nursing home provider in Ca. This is the third such neglectful death reported at a Pleasant Care facility, all of which are now under investigation. Some articles report five deaths.
Its a sad statement that we allow our elders, our poor and disabled, our most vulnerable citizens to spend their entire lives in centers such as these, where money is more important then compassion or dignity. When we allow our society to treat the disabled, aged and poor this badly, we embrace a society void of humanity. If we do not demand change we are just as much to blame. Not a dime should be made of the backs of people in need of care. To these corporations, these human beings are products, products to make money from. They buy and sell their care, take their trusts, their income, and treat them inadequately. They make money from their suffering. Is that the society we want?
"The health department reported Wednesday that the male resident, whose name was not released, required total assistance with daily living activities and was at risk for falls. He was found on the floor Aug. 15, 2005, with an injury to his forehead. Nursing home workers did not assess his injury or notify his physician until the next day when he appeared lethargic, the report said. He was transferred to a hospital, where he died two days later of "massive bilateral intracerebral hemorrhage contributory to head trauma.
Emmanuel administrator John Malley declined to comment, saying only that the nursing home's parent company planned to appeal the citation.
The death involving the Norwalk facility was the third that state investigators have attributed to negligent care at nursing homes owned by Pleasant Care Corp., California's second-largest nursing home chain."
Its a sad statement that we allow our elders, our poor and disabled, our most vulnerable citizens to spend their entire lives in centers such as these, where money is more important then compassion or dignity. When we allow our society to treat the disabled, aged and poor this badly, we embrace a society void of humanity. If we do not demand change we are just as much to blame. Not a dime should be made of the backs of people in need of care. To these corporations, these human beings are products, products to make money from. They buy and sell their care, take their trusts, their income, and treat them inadequately. They make money from their suffering. Is that the society we want?
"The health department reported Wednesday that the male resident, whose name was not released, required total assistance with daily living activities and was at risk for falls. He was found on the floor Aug. 15, 2005, with an injury to his forehead. Nursing home workers did not assess his injury or notify his physician until the next day when he appeared lethargic, the report said. He was transferred to a hospital, where he died two days later of "massive bilateral intracerebral hemorrhage contributory to head trauma.
Emmanuel administrator John Malley declined to comment, saying only that the nursing home's parent company planned to appeal the citation.
The death involving the Norwalk facility was the third that state investigators have attributed to negligent care at nursing homes owned by Pleasant Care Corp., California's second-largest nursing home chain."
Saturday Jun 23rd, 2007 4:06 PM
I think the Santa Cruz Sentinel Article was misleading and giving false hope to residents. Unlike the Sentinel, I did speak to corporate. "there have been no bids, Santa Cruz Pleasant Care is slated to close. There have been no bids, they have until June 29th, and know one has even started the qualifying processes. Although its true, like DHS said, they will not just shut them down on July 2nd. But it will close, much like Capitola Care Center and the impact will be vast. Here is the front page of the Pleasant Care Bankruptcy document. A slow shut down could mean three months to a year, but as the Sentinel article barley touches on what happens when Medicare and Medi-cal stops paying for their services. The process closing process quikens.
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