Golden Living Center-York Terrace is among the 14 defendants in a suit filed Tuesday by state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office against Golden Gate National Senior Care LLC.
The health care section of the attorney general’s office filed the lawsuit in commonwealth court. The company manages and operates 36 facilities statewide. The subsidiaries are also known as Golden Living Centers. Fourteen are named in the suit. They are Blue Ridge Mountain, Harrisburg; Camp Hill; Clarion; Gettysburg; Hillview, Altoona; Lansdale; Monroeville; Mt. Lebanon, Pittsburgh; Phoenixville; Stenton, Philadelphia; Summit, Wilkes-Barre; Tunkhannock; Western Reserve, Erie; and York Terrace, Pottsville.
“As we allege, these companies profited at the expense of our most vulnerable residents. These facilities promised to provide the care needed by residents and then failed to meet residents’ most basic human needs. That is simply unacceptable,” Kane said.
The legal action, filed in commonwealth court in the form of a complaint in equity and petition for permanent injunction, seeks permanent injunctive relief prohibiting Golden Living from engaging in the allegedly deceptive and unlawful business practices it is accused of, the statement said.
The suit seeks $1,000 per violation of the law, or up to $3,000 for every violation involving a person 60 years old or older. It also seeks restitution for consumers, injunctive relief and costs of litigation. It alleges Golden Living violated the Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law by deceiving consumers through its marketing practices.
Interviews with family members, former certified nursing assistants and others who worked at the facilities points to a “widespread pattern of understaffing and omitted, care,” the suit said.
The company advertised it would keep its residents clean and comfortable while providing food and water at any time. But its facilities were understaffed, leaving residents thirsty, hungry, dirty, unkempt and sometimes unable to summon anyone to help meet their most basic needs, such as using the bathroom, the suit alleges.
The suit lists GGNSC Pottsville LP; GGNSC Pottsville, GP LLC as defendants. The former is a limited partnership with its principal place of business at 2401 W. Market St., Pottsville, and operates Golden Living Center-York Terrace, the suit said. The latter is a limited liability company with the same address and is the general partner of the former.
The suit goes into specific instances in which the alleged instances took place. For instance, in a section titled Omissions of care at Golden Living Center-York Terrace, the suit has information from two confidential witnesses. One of the confidential witnesses worked as a certified nursing assistant from 2007 to 2011. Another one worked as a CNA there from 2012 to 2014, according to the suit. The suit states allegations of diapers not being changed, lack of showers, dehydration from lack of additional water after providing it during the morning. Among other things, it also alleges that records were not accurate.
“Managers would tell the CNAs to write down that they had provided care even if it was not done,” the suit states.
There are also allegations of insufficient staff and call lights not being answered within the required two minutes, according to the suit. Residents who could communicate often received better care than those who could not “because they could complain to their family members, who complained to the administrator,” the suit states.
Furthermore, the suit alleges violations of state and federal nursing home law at York Terrace by “failing to provide basic care and failing to keep accurate records.”
In response to the statement from the Attorney General Kane, Executive Director Christie Monahan said, “Golden Living is confident that claims made by the Attorney General are baseless and wholly without merit. No doubt, this is an unfortunate result of Kathleen Kane’s inappropriate and questionable relationship with a Washington, DC-based plaintiff’s firm that preys on legitimate businesses and is paid by contingency fees. Golden Living also believes that this complaint is in retaliation for our challenging the Attorney General’s authority in a pending lawsuit. We plan to vigorously defend the reputation of Golden Living and its employees.”
Heather Taylor, director of nursing at Golden Living-York Terrace, said, “We are a five-start facility with a deficiency-free state department of health score in 2014.”
