Two Long Beach nursing homes are named on a federal list of nearly 400 nursing homes across the country with serious ongoing health, safety or sanitary problems, it was reported Wednesday.
One of them is Long Beach Healthcare Center, a Wrigley-area facility that in February was issued a rare AA citation -- California's most serious violation. It's issued when it's determined that a nursing home directly caused a resident's death.
The patient in question was rushed to a hospital in August 2018 with an abdomen so distended from constipation that it looked as if she had "three soccer balls inside of her stomach," according to state records cited by the Long Beach Post.
She died 12 days later due to respiratory failure and severe sepsis from a urinary tract infection and pneumonia.
A state investigation later found that the staff at Long Beach Healthcare Center made several critical errors, including not properly monitoring the woman's deteriorating condition and failing to report that she had not had bowel movement for seven days.
The other facility is Windsor Gardens Convalescent Center of Long Beach, according to the Nursing Home Compare website, which is run by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Long Beach Healthcare Center has 39 citations, more than three times the state average. Windsor Gardens has 22 citations, including one from July when a resident was found restrained in bed and soiled with feces and urine, the Post reported. Both facilities are rated one of out five stars on the federal website, indicating they are "much below average."
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Jon Peralez, an administrator for Windsor Gardens, said in a statement that the facility acknowledges that it is on the list and will "continue to make improvements that maintain and improve the quality of care."
A representative of Long Beach Healthcare Center could not be reached for Comment. Both facilities are named on a federal list of nearly 400 nursing homes across the country with serious ongoing health, safety or sanitary Problems.
The list, released this month by U.S. senators, notes facilities with a "persistent record of poor care" that haven't previously been released to the public, according to a U.S Senate report.
