Labor union's pressure campaign hits local senior living facilities
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

A labor union's national campaign to pressure a senior assisted-living organization to add more staff has hit Ventura County.

SEIU Healthcare, a division of the Service Employees International Union, launched the Campaign to Improve Assisted Living recently, publicizing through a website, fliers and newspaper ads complaints made against Atria Senior Living Group, the country's thirdlargest provider of assisted-living services. The nonunion Atria operates residential facilities in Thousand Oaks and Camarillo.

Jennifer Kelly, SEIU Healthcare spokesperson, said "hundreds" of family members, caregivers and a few Atria residents have responded to the national campaign so far with stories of high worker turnover and inadequate staff training, factors that contribute to poor-quality care at Atria Hillcrest in Thousand Oaks.

In publicizing the problems at Atria, SEIU wants Atria to see it needs more staff to become a leader in quality care for residents and in working conditions for employees, Kelly said.

The union is advertising an incident that occurred in March, when state investigators found staff members at Atria Hillcrest hadn't followed state guidelines after 25 residents came down with a virus.

The facility director had allowed group activities to continue and the kitchen to remain open for several days after the outbreak, which violates public health protocol.

Earlier that same month, investigators had visited the facility in response to a complaint that Atria staff had failed to give four residents their medication for as long as three days. One resident was diabetic. The staff said the oversight was due to a change in pharmacy providers.

In 2003, investigators fined the facility $150 for failing to obtain appropriate medical treatment for a resident with an open wound.

"These are systemic problems," Kelly said.

Atria Senior Living Group called the nearly six-month campaign by SEIU a publicity stunt aimed at getting more members and their dues.

In a prepared statement, the company said that SEIU has repeatedly used "out-of-context and inaccurate information," harassed residents and criticized its employees in the press.

"As the union wages its negative campaign against us, it's increasingly losing credibility because people know Atria has a strong track record of providing highquality assistedliving for residents and quality jobs and opportunities for our employees. . . . The SEIU's suggestion that our employees want to join a union is completely selfserving," the company said.

Volunteers with an ombudsman program for elderly residents of assisted-living facilities have found no evidence of substandard care at Atria's two Ventura County facilities.

Sylvia TaylorStein, executive director of Long-Term Care Services of Ventura County, the nonprofit that sends ombudsmen to the county's 220 nursing homes and residential assisted-living facilities, said her volunteers have found no "red flags" at Atria.

Ombudsmen make unannounced monthly visits to evaluate the cleanliness and comfort of facilities and routinely speak with clients and residents in private and in group settings to ensure they are receiving quality care.

Although state and local officials say complaints against such facilities are inevitable, Taylor-Stein said the number made against Hillcrest and Atria's Las Posas site in Camarillo are "very light" compared to other facilities in the county. None of three pending complaints against Atria Las Posas or any that were recently resolved involved charges of substandard care, she said.

And aside from Atria Hillcrest's medication blunder in March, none of the last year's three closed investigations or the four complaints pending involve charges of poor-quality care, Taylor-Stein said.

She also said the nature of the complaints tells her Atria's operations are "pretty good facilities." Complaints the ombudsmen hear from Atria residents either involve personality conflicts between residents and/or staff or financial abuse by a family member- problems outside the purview of the facilities, Taylor-Stein said. None of the complaints the SEIU cited in its Ventura County campaign involved Atria Las Posas.

Kelly said that the union included the Atria Las Posas facility in the ad campaign as a means of raising awareness.

The union wants to speak to anyone with a problem at either facility since not every complaint from an Atria resident or a family member comes to the attention of government or watchdog agencies, she said.

Kelly added that as a result of their nationwide campaign, family members have accompanied SEIU officials to city, county and state agency meetings to tell their stories of substandard care at Atria. Consequently, government officials have made unannounced visits to the facilities, she said.