'Profit Over Patients'

Editor:

I went with my husband to visit a friend at Granada Rehab in Eureka on Dec. 24. During the visit we were told that the roommate was contagious with COVID-19. We started to leave but another nurse said she was not contagious. Three days later, my husband and I, aged 80 years, both came down with COVID. But worse, our friend also was infected and who knows how many other patients and visiting public. A call to Granada was met with great surprise from the head nurse, who sounded amazed that we were told the neighbor patient was negative — so apparently it was well-known that that person was contagious, and yet they put our friend in the same room with her and gave misleading information to visitors.

Two days later, both women within were tested as COVID positive and their door shut. The nurses and others at Granada were kind and helpful. But they clearly are understaffed (and probably underpaid) and lack oversight and coordinated leadership, obviously suffering from the nationwide malaise of privatized ownership of such facilities that put profit over patients (and public safety).

The current private owner is Shlomo Rechnitz, an LA entrepreneur who owns multiple skilled nursing homes (SNF) across the state. His notorious record has been examined by the North Coast Journal on multiple occasions (“Troubled Nursing Home Chain Owner Shlomo Rechnitz Gets New Licenses Just Before State Reforms Take Effect,” June 30), exhibiting a behavior summed up by state Assemblymember Jim Wood as he introduced a bill last February to control profits to private owners:

“SNFs owners are using related-party companies to make themselves millions, hiding profits in other companies they own, while at the same time decreasing staffing in facilities and risking the lives of residents.”

This is surely the case with Grenada. Until we achieve a universal, guaranteed, single-payer healthcare system that would regulate nursing homes and support patients over profits, anyone will be hard-pressed to find dependable, safe care for the ill and elderly.

Patty Harvey, Willow Creek