A San Francisco, CA jury slammed the Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. last month with a $677 million dollar verdict for a routine failure to keep any of its nursing homes or long term care facilities properly staffed.
Cindy Cools, in an interview with The Associated Press, told of her experiences with Eureka Healthcare and Rehabilitation, the facility, owned by Skilled Healthcare Group Inc., that “cared” for her father before his death in 2006. She would often visit her father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, and find him in urine-soaked clothing. She also reported that it would take staff members upwards of 20 minutes to respond to a distress call. “A lot of times I walked out of there crying because of the things I saw,” she said.

The nursing home abuse lawsuit brought against the group claimed that the company failed to maintain a California State required 3.2 hours of nursing per patient, per day.
Pat Mcginnis, executive director and founder of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, said in the article published by the AP that that time should have been easy to maintain, considering that the federal recommendation is 4.1 hours per patient, per day. The $677 million verdict is currently thought to be the largest of it’s kind in the country, and suprised even plaintiff’s attorneys. Of course, tort reformers are already pointing the case out as litigation abuse.

Skilled Healthcare Group, Inc. is a publicly traded company, and it’s thought by some that their care became sub-par when Wall Street Investment Firms started buying up nursing home companies and cutting their staff numbers to spike stock prices.
This is just further proof that long term care facilities being run by money hungry mongrels are not serving the purposes of caring for the ill and elderly, but rather putting luxury SUV’s into winding drive-ways, and in-ground swimming pools into oversized backyards.

Since the verdict, stock prices have fallen due to fear of the group’s seemingly imminent bankruptcy. It is likely that the verdict will be reduced during settlement negotiations, but hopefully the verdict will serve as a wake-up call to other companies running long term care facilities without regard to the care they are providing.

Mininno Law Office and Nursing Home Abuse

If you or a loved one have suffered due to inadequate, negligent, or abusive care at a nursing home or long term care facility, contact the Mininno Law Office. We are here to get you the compensation that you deserve.
We offer free case evaluations, or free consultations by phone at (856) 833-0600 in New Jersey, or (215) 567-2380 in Philadelphia.