Veterans Home to be Investigated Amidst Complaints of Elder Abuse
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 595
State Senator Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, has successfully called for an investigation of the California Veterans Home in Yountville as a result of a large number of complaints from residents and veteran residents of the facility. This investigation called for by the Senator is to focus on the medical care provided by the facility to the residents, including staffing issues. Many of the complaints include disabled veterans being left in their own urine and excrement for hours without any assistance, and a male resident dying after falling and breaking his femur and hip, which was not diagnosed for 10 days.
In response to the Senator's call for the investigation, the Deputy Administrator of the facility stated:
In a facility that's providing care for 1,060 veterans, and 360-some of those are in intermediate or skilled-nursing type of care, there are going to be some lapses in the service.
With respect to the staffing issues, the facility admits that they are short-handed.
If you don't have enough staff, then the veteran is going to have to wait - not that we want them to, and we try to make sure that they don't. Unfortunately, it happens. You can only work so fast and be in one place at one time.
Our veterans deserve better care. The facility's positions that "there are going to be some lapses" and "unfortunately, it happens," are not good enough for these mostly elder men and women who have served our country. I personally handled a matter against the Veterans Home in Yountville, where a resident who had been admitted to the hospital with a severe seizure disorder was allowed to merely walk out of his room at night, walk out of a door and onto a balcony, and fell 30 feet to his death. He was not discovered by the staff for several hours. Where was the staff then? It appears that this staffing issue has been around for many years, and, hopefully, Senator Wiggins will get the State Legislature to address this important issue.
For more information on this subject matter, please refer to the section on Medical Malpractice and Negligent Care.