Santa Cruz nursing home enters stipulated judgment after 'dramatic' changes
SANTA CRUZ -- The Santa Cruz County District Attorney's Office along with the California Department of Justice have entered into a stipulated judgment with a skilled nursing facility in Santa Cruz after ongoing litigation concerning the facility's protection of patient safety, both offices said.
In 2020, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction against the Hearts & Hands Post Acute Care and Rehab Center and appointed a monitor to report on compliance with the terms of the injunction, the District Attorney's Office said.
Hearts & Hands, which is located at 2929 Soquel Ave., was accused of violating laws that protect patients' safety when they were discharged from the facility, failing to provide adequate staffing and causing an inordinate amount of emergency calls to the facility.
According to California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office, Hearts & Hands allegedly discharged residents that it deemed "too difficult" due to their diagnoses of dementia or substance abuse disorders, in violation of the law.
"This resulted in some of those residents being moved to inappropriate treatment and housing and, in some cases, losing access to housing," Bonta's office said in a statement Friday.
The investigation into the facility began in 2018 and the next year a lawsuit was filed by the DoJ and the district attorney's office, alleging violations of California's unfair competition and false advertising laws.
Hearts & Hands underwent three years of monitoring and has now made "significant changes and progress" in its operations and compliance, Bonta's office said. Calls to law enforcement have dropped substantially, the facility is adequately staffed, and the new administrator there has brought it up to required performance standards.
The Santa Cruz County district attorney's office concurred, saying that Hearts & Hands "dramatically" improved the facility and its operations. This meant that the original $250,000 penalty imposed on the company could be stayed by all but about $50,000 in recognition of the facility's cooperation, prosecutors said.
Hearts & Hands could not immediately be reached for comment.
The facility will continue to be monitored for two years.
