Agency faulted in crisis at care home

California regulators “fell short” in managing the shutdown of an elder-care home in Castro Valley last fall, putting the lives of frail residents in jeopardy, an internal state report said Wednesday.

The report summarized problems with the state Department of Social Services’ shutdown of Valley Springs Manor in October. More than a dozen residents were left behind after officials ordered the care home closed, then did little to make sure the elderly people were either moved or cared for.

Most of the home’s employees soon left. The two who remained behind without pay repeatedly called 911, saying the residents needed help.

In a two-page statement Wednesday, the Department of Social Services summarized its probe of the shutdown, saying the agency’s top management had not been sufficiently attentive to what was happening.

Even before the crisis in October, the report found, Valley Springs had been cited for “numerous violations in the adequacy of care.” The state had moved to revoke the license of the home’s owner, Herminigilda Manuel, but Valley Springs was allowed to stay open while

she appealed.

Problems persisted, and by mid-October “it was evident that conditions were unacceptable,” the report said. Manuel was not responding to the agency’s queries, prompting officials to suspend her operating license.

The state ordered Valley Springs shut down Oct. 24, and officials worked with elder-care agencies to find new housing for the residents during that week, the report found. But on Oct. 25, officials made a “judgment call” that the home could stay open for several days to allow other residents to be moved, the report said.

“That judgment was in error,” the report concluded. State employees should have taken over “to address the developing crisis and make appropriate arrangements to ensure the safety of remaining residents,” the report said.

By failing to do so, the report said, Social Services “fell short of its mission to protect the health and safety of residents in Valley Springs Manor.”

As a result of the problems with the closure, agency officials have ordered that state licensing staffers remain at any care home that is shut down if the operators are uncooperative.

The state will also find away for other operators to take over troubled homes “in the event that they are abandoned by their owners and staff,” the report said.

The report did not address how Manuel obtained a license to run care homes in the first place, even though she had been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars for putting patients at risk when she ran a pair of nursing homes.

Pat McGinnis, executive director for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, called the report “an excellent start.”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen the senior leadership of the department acknowledge that they should have been engaged,” she said. “Obviously, this is a start — there is so much more needed to be done, and they know that.”