Lawsuit alleges Imperial Heights of elder abuse
Alawsuit was recently filed against Imperial Heights Healthcare & Wellness Centre alleging the facility failed to properly care for an 83-year-old man who as a resident had reportedly developed numerous bedsores which ultimately led to his hospitalization and demise.
The lawsuit was filed Nov. 7, in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Guillermo Espinosa of Placer County, and accuses the skilled nursing facility and its corporate administrators of elder abuse and negligent hiring and supervision.
Espinosa had been admitted to the facility in December 2016 with a known history of falls and arthritis, and within months had sustained multiple falls, which allegedly contributed to the development of both dementia and pressure sores, commonly known as bed sores, the lawsuit alleges.
The allegedly inadequate care that Espinosa had received was a direct result of the nursing facility’s corporate administrators’ focus on “unlawfully increasing the earnings in the operations of defendants’ businesses as opposed to providing the legally mandated minimum care,” the lawsuit stated.
The lawsuit identifies three corporate entities that maintain a shared office space in Los Angeles – Boardwalk West Financial Services, LLC, SR Capital, LLC, and Citrus Wellness Center, LLC – as having “siphoned off huge and unwarranted amounts of money under the guise of providing ‘support services’ and vast amounts of monies through ‘administrative expenses’ accounts.”
“The facility and the management defendants operated in such a way as to make their individual identities indistinguishable, and are therefore, the mere alter-egos of one another,” the complaint stated.
In early October, Espinosa was transferred from Imperial Heights to Pioneers Memorial Hospital, where his family was told he had reportedly developed a blood infection requiring the amputation of both his legs. He ultimately passed away at the hospital on Oct. 17 from complications due to his condition.
Among the five administrators listed as defendants is Schlomo Rechnitz, principal partner at SR Capital, according to documents filed with the state Secretary of State.
Rechnitz also had served as the chief executive officer of Imperial Height’s corporate parent Rockport Healthcare Services, and Brius Healthcare Services, both of which are no stranger to controversy.
Recent documents filed with the state Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development by the defendants’ businesses reportedly reveal that Imperial Heights paid $60,000 to Citrus Wellness and $42,000 to Boardwalk West Financial Services for “phantom” non-clinical services, the complaint alleges.
Similar documents on file with the state divulge that Imperial Heights made “unspecified related party transaction payments” totaling $1.1 million to SR Capital, the lawsuit stated.
In recent years, both Rockport and Brius healthcare services have been at the center of controversy in Northern California as a result of plans to close Humboldt County nursing homes, ongoing lawsuits and investigations into unfair labor practices.
The charges against the closely-linked nursing home corporations have even spawned a website, www. briuswatch.org, which details a history of questionable business practices that have allegedly contributed to a “chronic pattern of substandard care.”
Chief among those are three wrongful death lawsuits filed earlier this year on behalf of former residents of two of Brius’ skilled nursing homes in Eureka by the Long Beachbased lawfirm of Garcia, Artigliere & Medby, which is also representing Espinosa’s surviving family in the lawsuit against Imperial Heights.
A request for comment from the plaintiff’s attorney was not responded to by press time.