JUNE 27, 2009 – The San Diego Union Tribune reported this week that the state of California has given an Encinitas nursing home its maximum fine of $100,000 in connection with a patient’s death from a preventable fall, state health regulators have reported. A patient admitted to Aviara Healthcare Center on Regal Road fell two times between May 9 and 10, 2009. He was not injured in the first fall, after which staff put an alarm on his gown. However, staff did not respond when the patient got out of his bed and walked out of his room. The hallway where the man was walking did not have a handrail. The man stumbled and grabbed a piece of equipment in the hallway. The piece of equipment, a device used to lift patients out of bed, fell on the floor and struck the man in the head. He died at a hospital two days later.

Seven employees of Aviara Healtcare stated that the lift was supposed to be stored in another location, and not in the nursing home’s hallway. State investigators found the equipment in the same hallway even after the man’s death. Aviara Healthcare was also fined $16,000 for not monitoring a patient who walked away from the facility three times in one day a month ago.

To report elder abuse in California, call the state’s toll-free CRISISline at (800) 231-4024. The hotline, a service of the California Department of Aging, is is available to take calls and refer complaints 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For more information about nursing home abuse and neglect civil claims, contact the law firm of Estey & Bomberger at (619)873-4498.