SavaSeniorCare is one of the country’s largest privately held operators of skilled nursing facilities. The national nursing home chain has nearly 200 facilities across the country across 22 states. The chain has approximately 25,000 beds in its facilities. The chain has its headquarters in Atlanta. Its website is www.savaseniorcare.com.
| Website | SavaSeniorCare.com |
| Number of Facilities | 168 independently operated/contracted with SavaSeniorCare |
| Headquarters | 1 Ravinia Drive Suite 1500 Atlanta, GA 30346 |
| Year founded | 2004 |
| Type of Care Provided | Skilled Nursing Rehabilitation Memory and Dementia Care Long Term Care |
SavaSeniorCare has been in business for a long, albeit in various different iterations. The current version of SavaSeniorCare originated from Mariner Health Care back in 2005. Originally, the nursing home business and the real estate were owned by separate entities. When the owner of the real estate, Rubin Schron, attempted to raise the rents on the nursing home, litigation between the two ensued. The litigation resulted in Schron winning control of both the real estate and the homes that operated on them.
SavaSeniorCare has been the target of several federal lawsuits. The nursing home chain was sued by several whistleblowers for charging Medicare for unnecessary services under the False Claims Act. The federal government intervened in one of the cases and trial was set for December 2018. The government’s complaint alleged that SavaSeniorCare set unrealistic financial goals for its nursing homes that resulted in the provision of medically unreasonable, unnecessary, and unskilled services to Medicare patients.
This was after the chain entered into a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2010 for a kickbacks scheme and other false claims. The chain has also faced multiple class-action suits and is a continuous recipient of negative publicity for shocking incidents at its nursing homes and violations of federal law. Sava Senior Care has even seen one of its Sava facilities terminated from the Medicare program.
SavaSeniorCare homes receive continuous low ratings on Medicare quality surveys. In addition, its homes have received numerous fines resulting from federal inspections of the facilities. Health inspections reports have detailed multiple failures in inpatient care, including the areas of investing and preventing abuse of the residents.
While many homes are successfully sued for failure to prevent pressure ulcers and other similar deficiencies, the incidents that SavaSeniorCare has been sued for and have put it in the news seem to be even worse. Some of the lawsuits include:
SavaSeniorCare has faced both litigation and negative media reports about incidents in its nursing homes as well as its treatment of residents. The company has settled several lawsuits with private plaintiffs (home residents) and is the defendant in many more. Here are some of the incidents and litigation that occurred at or relate to the SavaSeniorCare homes.
Settlement (Undisclosed) in Wyoming – Poplar Living Center has been the defendant is numerous lawsuits. The nursing home settled a lawsuit in which a blind resident was standing by a curb waiting for a ride. A van driven by one of the facility’s employees hit the resident, injuring his arm and causing numbness. The amount of the settlement is confidential. There was reference made to a slew of previous lawsuits against this particular facility. Specifically, there were six previous wrongful death lawsuits as well as an extensive history of federal inspection reports stating that the facility was understaffed. Shortly after this settlement was reached, there was a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed Sava’s facility failed to diagnose her cancer.
Jury Verdict ($2,350,000) in Michigan – The resident had a swallowing disorder, but was given whole meatballs that were intended for another resident. This particular resident could not chew and swallow whole meatballs. The resident began to choke, but due to the fact that the dining room was not sufficiently staffed, there was nobody present to perform the Heimlich maneuver on the resident. Instead, the nurse’s aide who should have performed the maneuver on the spot wheeled the resident 40 feet to another nursing station where the maneuver was attempted. The resident was suffocating for 15 minutes by the time the paramedics dislodged the meatball, causing brain death.
Jury Verdict ($13,109) in North Carolina – The resident was able to exit the facility on his own in a motorized wheelchair. When attempting to wheel himself down a ramp, he wheeled over a curb. Then the wheelchair pitched forward and the resident hit his face and head on the ground. The resident died from his injuries. The lawsuit claimed that the nursing home staff did not adequately supervise the resident, allowing him to exit the facility on his own. The nursing home was also accused of not adequately marking the wheelchair ramp.
Lawsuit Filed in Tennessee – A resident died of cardiac arrest. Nurses were notified of the resident’s critical potassium levels, but there were inconsistencies and medical records that were missing. The family members of o the elderly patient filed a lawsuit also accusing the nursing home of failing to uphold standards of patient care.
Lawsuit Filed in North Carolina – A CNA at the Brian Center was found guilty of several felonies, including sexual assault of rape of residents. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. The lawsuit alleged that the nursing home management knew of the incidents for some time before it was reported and before the CMA was fired. The lawsuit claims that the nursing home tried to cover up the misdeeds of the CAN by trying to silence the victim. Like all other lawsuits against the chain’s homes, this lawsuit alleges that the failure to adequately and properly staff the nursing home placed the residents in danger.
Jury Verdict ($3.2 million) in Colorado – The resident was a 41-year-old quadriplegic. The plaintiff claimed that the staff did not know how to treat his wounds or transfer him properly. He claimed that his call lights were ignored and he was left to sit in his own urine and feces for extended periods. He suffered various injuries while at the facility, including a burn that required surgery. The plaintiff claimed that the nursing home staff retaliated against him when he complained. Included in the plaintiff’s award was an amount for the extreme and reckless conduct of the nursing home.
Jury Verdict ($375,000) in Colorado – An 87-year-old woman was staying at the nursing home for short-term rehab after surgery. She rang the call button for help to use the bathroom, but her call for help was not answered. After some time had passed, she attempts to get up herself, but fell and broke her ankle. The resident then died from complications of surgery to repair the broken ankle. The lawsuit claimed that the resident’s call was ignored because the senior care facility was short-staffed.
Lawsuit Filed in California – Six different nursing homes belonging to SavaSeniorCare were sued for a pattern of evicting residents. Nursing homes are required to give a resident 30 days’ notice if they are evicting them against their will. The facility also cannot simply throw them out in the street, but must also help facilitate their transfer to another facility. Here, the facility was accused of evicting residents without any prior notice and not helping transfer them to another home.
Criminal Charges Filed in Georgia – Hidden camera showed nursing homes aides laughing as a resident gasped for air and they were struggling with putting on his oxygen mask. Before that, the resident was pressing his call button and begging for help and was ignored while he was crying out for assistance. Even though the resident could not breathe, it was an hour before 911 was called. The family had placed a hidden camera in the room to monitor the resident’s treatment. Law enforcement found this alleged conduct to be so wanton and heinous that the CNAs were charged with various crimes, including murder.
Termination from Medicare in Alabama – Medicare took the drastic step of terminating a SavaSeniorCare Healthcare home from the program for drastic and repeated violations of federal nursing home regulations. These violations were detected in the course of inspections that were undertaken of the facility.
If your loved one has been the victim of any conduct of this type or even something less than these shocking examples, you need to retain counsel to represent the interests of your family. Nursing home chains such as SavaSeniorCare have high-priced lawyers on their payroll to protect the company’s interests, even when the nursing home engages in egregious and shocking conduct. As such, you need a lawyer on your side to hold nursing homes such as these accountable.
The nursing home abuse attorneys at the Nursing Home Law Center have been fearlessly vindicating the legal rights of families for years, often going up against large national chains such as SavaSeniorCare. Call us today at (800) 726-9565 to schedule your free no-risk case assessment. Find out how we can help your family right a wrong that was done by a nursing home.
For more information on the specifics on Sava Senior Care facilities, look below: