Large Sacramento Hospice Operator
The elder abuse crisis is not confined to assisted living facilities and nursing homes. Hospices have also been guilty of severe neglect and abuse due to a lack of oversight and corporate accountability.
In 2012, a patient of a large hospice company that operates in Northern California and beyond fell and suffered an injury to her leg. The injury led to a gangrenous sore that ultimately resulted in the woman’s death a few weeks later.
The woman’s daughter subsequently filed a complaint with the Department of Public Health, followed by a civil lawsuit charging the hospice with reckless, malicious neglect.
In the lawsuit, plaintiffs maintained that components of the neglect were fraudulent in nature, with the hospice pursuing a ‘deliberate plan’ to maximize profits by illegally certifying patients who were not eligible for hospice care. This, in conjunction with deliberate under-staffing, amounted to elder abuse and neglect.
The failures of care were attributed to a ‘systemic operational crisis’ that put the profits of the hospice company’s corporate overseers before patient care. It’s a familiar story of bloated organizational structures that can’t possibly provide the level of care required by patients. In this case, the hospice was owned by a management company that operated more than ten hospice agencies across the western United States; the management company was owned by a holding company; the holding company by a parent company responsible for forty-six nursing facilities and multiple management companies. This labyrinthine corporate structure ensured that exorbitant fees were extracted for those at the top, in return for minimal services.
With the Department of Public Health failing to sanction the hospice in any meaningful way, the families of elder abuse and neglect victims have no other recourse than the pursuit of accountability and recovery through civil action. Fortunately, in the case outlined above, legal negotiations succeeded where the Department of Health could not. The hospice company ultimately settled the case for a substantial sum and sold its operations to a different company.
To receive a free case evaluation from an elder abuse attorney:
Call (916) 448-6400, submit a contact form, or live chat with us using the button on the bottom right of your screen.
The recoveries that prompted the press coverage featured on these pages are a small sampling of the cases Mr. Dudensing has handled on behalf of victims of elder abuse and neglect. They generally represent larger than average recoveries, and in no way imply or guarantee that any prospective client will receive a similar recovery or, for that matter, prevail in litigation. We present them here only to demonstrate the types of cases Mr. Dudensing has taken on previously.