By FRANK SHYONG, COLUMNIST
MARCH 1, 2021 5 AM PT
Relieving overtaxed hospitals and their exhausted staff is essential. But this policy has allowed for-profit companies that run many nursing homes to volunteer their residents for the increased viral risk — and profit — that the transfers represent.
Patients and doctors say they were never informed or consulted about Kei-Ai’s participation in the program. And many now are questioning the wisdom of a policy that relieved hospital crowding by placing the must vulnerable people at risk. Nearly a third of all COVID-19 deaths have occurred at nursing homes.
Dr. Takeshi Matsumoto began 2020 with 15 patients at Kei-Ai Los Angeles. Most of them have contracted COVID-19, and five have died.
“Why would you volunteer to be a COVID-designated facility knowing that you’re going to be endangering the current residents there? I don’t get that at all,” Matsumoto said.
Save Our Seniors (SOS) held a public event in front of the Kei-Ai Los Angeles facility on Thursday February 25, 2021 to bring attention to this issue. We are grateful to Frank Shyong and the Los Angeles Times for helping to shed light on unusually high COVID-19 deaths at this privately-owned Pacifica Companies facility.
SOS calls upon elected officials CA Assemblymembers Miguel Santiago and Wendy Carrilo, CA Senator Maria Elena Durazo, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Hilda Solis, Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell to meet with family members impacted by this horrific situation and force transparency from Pacifica and needed public intervention to slow the unnecessary deaths.
Some related posts:
https://saveourseniors.network/why-was-pacifica-companies-allowed-to-intake-covid-19-positive-patients/
https://saveourseniors.network/a-must-read-from-capital-main/
https://saveourseniors.network/how-wall-street-killed-grandma/
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