LA County closed nursing-home safety cases without investigations

A 104-year-old woman rests on her nursing home bed, under the watchful gaze of her younger self.

Facing a backlog of hundreds of health and safety complaints about nursing homes, Los Angeles County public health officials told inspectors to close cases without fully investigating them, according to internal documents and interviews.

Facing a backlog of hundreds of health and safety complaints about nursing homes, Los Angeles County public health officials told inspectors to close cases without fully investigating them, according to internal documents and interviews.

The effort — known as the “Complaint Workload Clean Up Project” — has been going on since at least the summer of 2012, according to internal memoranda sent to managers and inspectors by county Department of Public Health supervisors.

State and federal officials, who contract with Los Angeles County to inspect nursing homes on their behalf, said they are now investigating the matter.

For Kaiser Health News, Anna Gorman has the story.