State health inspectors say the Motion Picture and Television Fund broke the law by failing to give adequate notice before transferring dozens of residents out of its long-term facility last year.
The MPTF has been embroiled in a year-long standoff with patients and their families over its decision to close its Woodland Hills facility in the face of escalating costs and budget shortfalls.
The California Department of Health claims MPTF administrators failed to give residents 30 days' notice after announcing the home’s closure in January 2009, according to a report released Wednesday.
Moreover, state and federal law requires that nursing-home residents be informed of their right to appeal their relocation, something the MPTF did not do.
The department's decision does not carry any penalties or fines. Yet members of Saving the Lives of Our Own, the grassroots organization formed to protest the long-term care center’s closure, are using the report to call for the ouster of MPTF officials.
The Department of Public Health investigated the notice violations in response to a complaint from the non-profit group, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform.
MPTF officials said they were formally disputing several of the report's findings. However, they also notified the department of their plans to take corrective actions to ensure that proper notice will be given to residents in the future.
“It wasn’t in our mind to do this. It was not like we set around and said we’re not going to give someone 30 days' notice,” the MPTF's CEO Bob Beitcher told TheWrap, adding that the care center had misintepreted the notice rule.
Members of several advocate groups for the nursing home's residents all told TheWrap that the report's findings could be the backbone of a possible civil action against the MPTF.
"We are absolutely outraged," said Melody Sherwood, a member of Saving the Lives of Our Own. "The time for the board to take corrective action is long overdue. There is no way to misinterpret what is required by law."
David Tillman, was CEO of the MPTF when the decision was made to shutter the care center. He was forced to resign last February and was replaced in the top job by Beitcher, a board member and the former CEO of Panavision.
Michael Connors of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, disputes Beitcher's contention that the 30-days requirement had been misunderstood. In the relocation plan the MPTF filed with the state before the closure was announced, hospital administrators said that they would provide 30 days' notice, according to Connors.
"They knew about the rules and they disregarded it," Connors said. "They defied the law and they were acting as if they were above the law."
Beitcher said that in most of the cases mentioned in the report, residents left voluntarily.
"Beitcher's wrong. These people were bullied, coerced and pressured into leaving," Richard Stellar, a member of Saving the Lives of Our Own, told TheWrap.
