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DESCRIPTION:8/13 Saturday: Keep Laguna Honda OPEN!  Press Conference-Speak Out To Stop 
 Closure of Laguna Honda Defend The Residents, Community & Public Resources 
 \nKeep Laguna Honda OPEN! \nPress Conference-Speak Out To Stop Closure of 
 Laguna Honda Defend The Residents, Community & Public Resources \n\nFor 
 years there have been attacks on Laguna Honda Hospital by corrupt CEO 
 executives and those who want to shut it down.\n\nLaguna Honda Hospital and 
 Rehabilitation Center has been a critical public institution for the care 
 and treatment of San Franciscans since 1886 and has helped generations of 
 communities and working people protect their lives, and the people of San 
 Francisco have provided hundreds of millions of dollars of funding to build 
 facilities and maintain this treasure for the people of San 
 Francisco.\n\nThe ongoing corruption scandals by the administration of this 
 facility have not been solved by San Francisco politicians. They have 
 allowed corrupt top officials to steal patient funds and the firing of 
 whistleblowers like Dr. Derek Kerr and Dr. Maria Rivera while promoting 
 those who are destroying the institution. \n\nThe US Health and Human 
 Resources Secretary Xavier Becerra and his department has ordered that the 
 facility be closed due to violations of the proper maintenance and have cut 
 off funding for further functions of this facility despite the fact that 
 the discharges  of residents has already led to the deaths of 9 people. 
 This healthcare emergency is not the time to shut down a facility that is 
 vital to the protection of the lives of the residents.\n\nThere are over 
 $80 billionaires in San Francisco and there are threats to shut down a 
 critical care institution for workers people and poor people. This has to 
 STOP!\n\nBehind this attack is the drive for privatization of public 
 institutions and the sale of public land by the City and County of San 
 Francisco at Balboa Reservoir and other publicly owned land is being pushed 
 by private developers and speculators.\n\nThis facility has been vital for 
 the working class, Black, Brown and Asian communities. We demand that the 
 order to close the facility be permanently rescinded by the Federal 
 government and that there be a community labor oversight committee 
 established for the oversight of this facility and those officials who have 
 been respon- sible for the failure to enforce proper health and safety 
 rules be held accountable by the City and County of San Francisco.\n\nJoin 
 a labor community speak out at the facility to keep it open on Saturday 
 August 13, 2022, at 11:00 AM\n375 Laguna Honda Blvd, San Francisco, CA 
 94116\n\nInitial Endorsers:\n\nCCSF Higher Education Action Team 
 HEAT\nUnited Front Committee For A Labor Party UFCLP\nUCSF Do No Harm 
 Coalition\nSF Supporters of Students &  Labor Against Privatization 
 SLAP\n\nFor more information: (415)260-2565 (415)867-0628 
 \n\nwww.ufclp.org\nwww.ccsfheat.org\n\nLaguna Honda: State’s rushed 
 closure of SF hospital paused after transfer deaths & community 
 outcry\nhttps://sfbayview.com/2022/08/laguna-honda-states-rushed-closure-of-sf-hospital-paused-after-transfer-deaths-community-outcry/\n\nLaguna 
 Honda: State’s rushed closure of SF hospital paused after transfer deaths 
 & community outcry\nAugust 4, 2022\n Share\nAn elder residing at Laguna 
 Honda gets a visit from a grand or great-grandchild this June. – Photo: 
 Laguna Honda\nHospital shelters 700, majority people of color\nby Griffin 
 Jones, SF Bay View\nOn July 28, the federal government agreed to the City 
 of SF’s request to pause transfers and discharges at Laguna Honda 
 Hospital following nine patient deaths due to “transfer trauma.” This 
 comes after CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), a federal 
 agency, cut off Medicare and Medi-Cal payments to the facility – funding 
 which makes it one of few long-term care sites in the city serving majority 
 low-income people, most of whom are Black, Asian and Latinx.\nIn May, 
 Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center lost its certification to 
 operate upon inspection by CMS, which cited issues with hand hygiene, 
 infection prevention and control as well as two missed doses of a 
 medication. The inspection followed two non-fatal overdoses at the hospital 
 that were self-reported in 2021 by the San Francisco Department of Public 
 Health.\nCMS’ decertification required full closure of Laguna Honda by 
 Sept. 15, 2022, which included the immediate discharging and/or 
 transferring of all patients, many out of the county or out of state. 
 \nLaguna Hondans were among the first in the country to receive the 
 COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020. – Photo: Laguna Honda\nOf the 57 
 transfers that had already taken place by July 25, at least four residents 
 died shortly after transfer: three at an out of county nursing home and one 
 at a medical respite homeless shelter, report the SF Gray Panthers. \nMayor 
 London Breed said in a statement: “While I’m glad we’ve reached an 
 agreement with the federal government to pause these transfers, it 
 shouldn’t have come to this. When we entered this recertification 
 process, we asked for an 18-month window to ensure that our residents did 
 not receive any disruption of care at Laguna Honda. \n“We were given four 
 months, and we’ve seen the disastrous results of that requirement. We are 
 ready and willing to confront any and all challenges we have to make Laguna 
 Honda work, but that commitment should not conflict with the care we have 
 provided for so many for so many years.”\nLaguna Honda workers, 
 residents, patient families and city leaders warned against transfers, 
 which are entirely unnecessary, and have been loudly protesting closure 
 since May. The pause has finally been granted, but only after the changes 
 proved deadly.\n“While a temporary pause on transfers is an important 
 first step, we must fight for the pause on transfers to be 
 permanent.”\nThe hospital, an institution since 1866, is the largest 
 nursing home in SF and the only long-term care facility of its kind in the 
 U.S., providing San Franciscans with culturally-competent care, skilled 
 nursing, rehabilitation, AIDS care, dementia services, hospice and acute 
 care, an adult day health care center and a senior nutrition program.\nOf 
 the approximately 700 Laguna Honda residents, 26% are African American, 29% 
 white, 20% Asian, 18% Hispanic, 1% Native, 1% Native Hawaiian/Pacific 
 Islander and 4% unknown.\nTheresa Rutherford, incoming president-elect of 
 Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 1021 and longtime certified 
 nurse assistant at Laguna Honda Hospital, stated of the pause on 
 transfers:\n“While a temporary pause on transfers is an important first 
 step, we must fight for the pause on transfers to be permanent. It breaks 
 our hearts to know that four people already died as a result of the forced 
 transfers ordered by CMS. Many of our patients are economically challenged 
 people from communities of color with very complex healthcare needs; Laguna 
 Honda is their home and many of them have nowhere else to go.”\nNurses 
 and workers are a major part of the campaign to mobilize people in the city 
 to save Laguna Honda patients, and their efforts are working. – Photo: 
 Laguna Honda\nThanks to community-led protests, we can hope for the pause 
 to be permanent until January 2023, when it is expected the hospital will 
 be recertified. \nTo help, contact your government representatives now and 
 attend the upcoming town hall on Laguna Honda Wednesday, Aug. 3, 1-2:20 
 p.m., presented by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform. Register 
 at tinyurl.com/laghonda. \nThis article was updated Aug. 5, 2022.\nGriffin 
 Jones is a journalist and copy editor formerly of the Los Angeles Review of 
 Books. She can be reached at griffin@sfbayview.com.\n\nUPTE-CWA 9119 
 Resolution Opposing closure of Laguna Honda Hospital in San 
 Francisco\nhttps://www.upte.org/2022-res4.pdf\nWhereas UPTE has become 
 aware of a recent report by the San Francisco Gray Panthers that the San 
 Francisco Department of Public Health has been carrying out dangerous 
 discharges of frail Laguna Honda Hospital residents, most of whom need 
 Skilled Nursing Care and are very vulnerable to medically-recognized 
 transfer trauma, to shelters and out-of-county nursing facilities, 
 including ones owned by Brius, notorious for its bad care, and had planned 
 to transfer over 600 residents, and\n\nWhereas of some 56 residents 
 transferred, at least five have died within days of being 
 transferred,\n\nWhereas, despite SFDPH’s insistence that the transfers 
 are voluntary, many residents have not been told of their appeal rights, 
 have been pressured to leave, and told that if they won their appeals to 
 remain at LHH they might have to pay for their own care, and\n\nWhereas, 
 despite SFDPH’s insistence that they can safely transfer over 600 
 residents, most residents would have to be transferred hundreds of miles 
 away, given the extreme shortage of facilities willing to take Medi-Cal 
 residents, and gentrification providing an incentive to buy up board and 
 care homes and convert them to luxury housing.\n\nWhereas involvement of 
 the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid was because of dangerous 
 conditions at LHH resulting from the “Flow Project,” by which mentally 
 ill and substance-using patients were taken out of SF General as soon as 
 their Medi-Cal funding ran out, and placed in LHH, which had neither staff, 
 equipment, or physical setup to safely care for them, and over LHH 
 clinicians’ objections. This situation was the direct result of SFDPH 
 failing to provide adequate inpatient and outpatient treatment for people 
 suffering from mental illness and substance use.\n\nWhereas LHH is at risk 
 of losing 120 beds by San Francisco not appealing a CMS covid-related 
 ruling that residents’ room have two beds or less; LHH was constructed 
 only 15 years ago, has large rooms, and had extremely low covid infection 
 rates throughout the pandemic.\n\nWhereas San Francisco has an unusually 
 high proportion of elder people living alone, many of whom are particularly 
 poor, and Medi-Cal-accepting nursing homes and SNFs are very rare, so the 
 threatened closure of Laguna Honda Hospital would be a disaster.\n\nBe it 
 resolved that UPTE, as a healthcare and education sector union, supports 
 public health services especially for the most vulnerable of our society 
 and supports the SF Gray Panthers in their demands that:\n\nLaguna Honda be 
 open to all San Franciscans who need nursing home care\n\nSFDPH Stop the 
 "flow" project & return admission decisions to LHH Staff\n\nNo forced 
 closures\n\nNo discharges for Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) eligible 
 residents\n\nNo discharges for non-SNF eligible residents until safe and 
 local arrangements are made.\n\nNo loss of beds in this nearly new 
 facility\n\nFunding for existing residents must continue until 
 recertification\n\nSufficient programs specifically for persons with 
 disabilities who are also mentally ill and/or substance using must be made 
 available immediately ---to allow them to remain in the community and so 
 inappropriate nursing home admissions will be 
 prevented.\n\nhttps://graypantherssf.igc.org/about_us.htm\n\nSF Gray 
 Panthers: Please speak on Laguna Honda at Tuesday's Health Commission 
 Meeting\n \nNew Call to Action on Laguna Honda Hospital:  Please speak at 
 Tues, Aug 9 Health Commission Meeting.\n \nTuesday, August 9, 4 PM, SF 
 Health Commission Meeting, Discussion on LHH Recertification and Closure 
 Plan.  (Remote meeting, details below.)   \n \nView the Agenda. See 
 instructions there for public comment.  Laguna Honda will be discussed both 
 in open and Closed Session; there will be an opportunity to give a 3 minute 
 public comment before each agenda item including the Closed Session (which 
 the public is not invited to.)\n \nSF Gray Panthers Demand:\nTo truly serve 
 San Franciscans as it should, we must demand that:\n•    Laguna Honda be 
 open to all San Franciscans who need nursing home care\n•    SFDPH Stop 
 the "flow" project & return admission decisions to LHH Staff\n•    No 
 forced closures\n•    No discharges for SNF-eligible residents\n•    No 
 discharge for non-SNF-eligible residents until safe and local arrangements 
 are made.\n•    No loss of beds in this nearly new facility\n•    
 Funding for existing residents must continue until recertification\n•    
 Sufficient programs specifically for persons with disabilities who are also 
 mentally ill and/or substance using must be made available immediately 
 ---to  allow them to remain in the community so inappropriate nursing home 
 admissions will be prevented\n \nOur specific issues with today's Laguna 
 Honda JCC Executive Report (attached) are:\n \n1.    We demand that halt on 
 discharges be permanent for nursing home eligible residents until 
 recertification. (Today's JCC Executive Reports states that DPH doesn't 
 know how long pause will last, p 5.)  We are in support of staff at Laguna 
 Honda refusing to allow these illegal and dangerous discharges.\n \n2.    
 Adding more staff, such as the 40 Patient Care Assistants is good-but why 
 such low skilled staff? Direct care in nursing homes with medically complex 
 residents is best done by R.N.s and C.N.A.s.\n \n3.    DPH should not 
 proceed with reducing LHH's licensed bed count by 120. (This is in 
 compliance with CDC's COVID-related specification of only 2 beds per bath 
 for newly recertified facilities). LHH is only 15 years old, has large 
 rooms, and had very few covid deaths when other nursing homes had huge 
 losses.  Isn't one point of CCSF/Chiu lawsuit to prevent the need for loss 
 of these valuable beds? Or has it already been decided that this lawsuit is 
 for show and is doomed to fail? (Today's JCC Executive Reports states DPH 
 is starting the reduction, p 21.)\n \n4.    In terms of how Laguna Honda 
 will operate after Recertification, best not to repeat past mistakes.  San 
 Franciscans need strong assurance from Mr. Pickens, Dr. Colfax, and the 
 Health Commission that Laguna Honda Medical and Nursing staff will be free 
 to independently screen and reject candidates from San Francisco General 
 Hospital who are unsuitable or unsafe.\n \n5.    SF-DPH and related 
 agencies must offer sufficient residential mental health and substance use 
 services. The City must also offer accessible community residences for 
 people with disabilities.  This will provide an alternative to 
 inappropriate placement at Laguna Honda.\n \nHow to give public comment to 
 the SF Health Commission  (also explained in Agenda)\n \nPUBLIC COMMENT 
 CALL-IN: 415-655-0003/ Access Code: 2464 369 6604\nAfter entering the 
 access code, press # twice to listen to the meeting\nPress "*3" to request 
 to speak. Speak immediately after you hear "Your line has been unmuted."  
 You will be heard. (Max time: 3 minutes.)\n \nRead a complete background on 
 the Laguna Honda Hospital situation at  bit.ly/LHH-ACTION (paste this into 
 your browser if link does not work).\n  federal government over Laguna 
 Honda 
 closure\n\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/laguna-honda-closure-17350266.php\n\nNanette 
 Asimov\nAug. 4, 2022\nSan Francisco City Attorney David Chiu and former 
 City Attorney Louise Renne have both filed suit against the federal 
 government to halt the closure of Laguna Honda hospital slated for Sept. 13 
 after the skilled nursing facility was decertified.\nSan Francisco City 
 Attorney David Chiu and former City Attorney Louise Renne have both filed 
 suit against the federal government to halt the closure of Laguna Honda 
 hospital slated for Sept. 13 after the skilled nursing facility was 
 decertified.\nBrontë Wittpenn/The Chronicle\nSan Francisco’s current and 
 former city attorneys filed a pair of lawsuits late Wednesday that they 
 hope will bring a screeching halt to the federal government’s effort to 
 shutter Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center next month.\nCity 
 Attorney David Chiu is asking a U.S. District Court judge to stop the 
 federal government from cutting off funds to Laguna Honda as of Sept. 13, a 
 deadline the city calls arbitrary and which would force the nursing home to 
 shut down and displace 600 vulnerable residents.\nFormer City Attorney 
 Louise Renne filed a separate, class-action lawsuit against state and 
 federal officials on behalf of those residents. Most patients at the 
 skilled nursing facility — one of the largest in the U.S. — are 
 medically fragile and often very poor. Some have lived there for 
 decades.\nThe pending closure has caused an uproar among supporters of the 
 city-run nursing home, especially after the U.S. Centers for Medicare and 
 Medicaid forced Laguna Honda to begin transferring its frail patients in 
 May in preparation for the closure. Of the 57 patients transferred or 
 discharged, eight died within days or weeks of their moves.\nAn empty 
 hallway at Laguna Honda hospital in San Francisco on July 20, 2022. The 
 facility is required by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to 
 transfer or discharge all patients by mid-September after the federal 
 agency decertified it in April.\nAn empty hallway at Laguna Honda hospital 
 in San Francisco on July 20, 2022. The facility is required by the U.S. 
 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to transfer or discharge all patients by 
 mid-September after the federal agency decertified it in April.\nBrontë 
 Wittpenn/The Chronicle\nBecause 14% of the relocated people have died, 
 possibly as a result of the phenomenon known as “transfer trauma,” 
 federal officials agreed last month to pause the transfers.\n“Pausing is 
 not enough,” Renne told The Chronicle. “We’re asking them to end the 
 discharge. Period. Families are worried sick. The mere threat of a 
 discharge is wrong.”\nIn the city’s lawsuit, Chiu argues that the 
 federal agency known as CMS chose a random date — Sept. 13 — to halt 
 funding of more than $200 million a year in the form of Medicaid and 
 Medicare reimbursements. The suit says shutting down the nursing home so 
 quickly is illegal because San Francisco is appealing the agency’s 
 decision to decertify Laguna Honda in the first place — and that appeal 
 won’t be heard until at least October.\n“We’re asking the federal 
 government to exert compassion and common sense,” Chiu said. “Between 
 the huge shortage of skilled nursing facility beds, we see potentially very 
 negative consequences” if the facility is forced to shut down next month. 
 “Individuals will become homeless. These people have nowhere to 
 go.”\nRenne put it more bluntly: “We’ve had eight deaths. Who knows 
 if there would be more? (CMS) knows that as well as we do. How do they live 
 with themselves?”\nChiu’s lawsuit notes that three patients discharged 
 from Laguna Honda wound up in homeless shelters. And last month, when 
 Laguna Honda officials called 1,400 nursing homes in a single week to try 
 to comply with the transfer order, not one of them had a vacant bed 
 eligible for Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement and with appropriate 
 services for Laguna Honda’s patients, according to the suit.\n“CMS’s 
 unreasonable requirements are not only harmful to patients and impossible 
 to achieve, they are also unlawful,” says the city’s lawsuit. Chiu 
 argues that the agency shouldn’t be allowed to shut down Laguna Honda 
 before the city can make its case that CMS was wrong to crack down so hard 
 on the facility, and that closing it before the appeal is heard denies San 
 Francisco due process.\nCMS officials could not immediately be reached for 
 comment after the suits were filed. In an interview on July 26, however, a 
 CMS official speaking on condition of anonymity told The Chronicle that the 
 agency could extend its deadline.\n“The timing is something we can 
 revisit,” the official said.\nCMS decertified Laguna Honda in April, six 
 months after state inspectors declared it to be “in a state of 
 substandard care.” CMS set Sept. 13 as the date it would stop paying to 
 care for the facility’s hundreds of residents. Laguna Honda depends on 
 Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements of nearly $18 million a month, or more 
 than two-thirds of its $26 million monthly budget.\nThe city’s lawsuit 
 acknowledges that Laguna Honda must fix deficiencies and prevent them from 
 recurring. But it also says the California Public Health Department — 
 which recommended that CMS withdraw the Medicare and Medicaid funding — 
 overstated the severity of the deficiences its inspectors found at Laguna 
 Honda between October and March, and that it never should have made that 
 recommendation.\nRenne’s class-action suit, which seeks a trial by jury, 
 makes the same argument. It’s also the basis of Chiu’s appeal.\nSan 
 Francisco City Attorney David Chiu speaks at a press conference about 
 abortion rights at City Hall on June 1, 2022.\nSan Francisco City Attorney 
 David Chiu speaks at a press conference about abortion rights at City Hall 
 on June 1, 2022.\nConstanza Hevia H./Special to The Chronicle\nLaguna 
 Honda’s current troubles began in July 2021, after the facility reported 
 that two patients had overdosed on illegal drugs and recovered. That report 
 triggered the state visit in October, after which inspectors found the 
 facility out of compliance.\nThe city’s lawsuit says the state’s 
 finding was based on a “failure to eliminate all illicit drugs and 
 contraband (such as cigarette lighters),” which in turn led to the 
 recommendation that CMS terminate its contract with Laguna Honda on April 
 14 if the nursing home was still out of compliance.\nChiu argues that 
 instead of allowing CMS to hastily shut down a vital institution, 
 especially when there are virtually no adequate alternatives for most 
 residents, the courts should give San Francisco time to make its case that 
 decertifying Laguna Honda was done in error.\nLaguna Honda is also 
 correcting its deficiencies and should be allowed to complete that process, 
 the lawsuit says. The nursing home “is confident that it will submit an 
 application allowing it to be recertified as a Medicare and Medicaid 
 provider by the end of the year.”\nBut if it has to shut down, Laguna 
 Honda will need until Nov. 2023 to do so safely, the suit says.\nIn all, 
 Chiu’s lawsuit paints a picture of a Catch-22 — an “impossible 
 situation” — that CMS has forced on Laguna Honda, the city and the 
 patients who depend on it. “Laguna Honda cannot stay open and it cannot 
 close,” the suit says.\nThe city attorney said that “the federal 
 government has left us with no choice” but to sue. “We’re hoping that 
 CMS will come to the table and work with us to preserve this critical 
 safety net.”\n\nLaguna Honda halts discharges after deaths; future of the 
 hospital still 
 unclear\n\nhttps://studio.youtube.com/channel/UCMIgEJUyBXsO4ckVj3dYasw/videos/upload?d=ud&filter=%5B%5D&sort=%7B%22columnType%22%3A%22date%22%2C%22sortOrder%22%3A%22DESCENDING%22%7D\n\nBy 
 Sydney Johnson | Examiner staff writer | Jul 29, 2022 Updated Jul 30, 2022 
 \n\nLagunaHondaHospital\n\nPatient transfers are being suspended for the 
 600 residents at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center, but it is 
 unclear how long the moratorium will last.\nKevin N. Hume/The 
 Examiner\nLaguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center is halting 
 transfers for its remaining 600 residents following four deaths that 
 occurred shortly after their relocation, according to a notice sent to 
 residents on Thursday obtained by The Examiner. It is unclear exactly how 
 long the transfers will be put on hold.\n\nFederal regulators at the Center 
 for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency within the U.S. 
 Department of Health and Human Services, had required that Laguna Honda 
 discharge as many patients as possible before Sept. 13, the soonest 
 possible date of closure for the hospital if recertification is 
 unsuccessful.\n\nAs part of implementing a closure plan required by federal 
 regulators, Laguna Honda has transferred 57 out of 681 residents since May, 
 according to a data dashboard updated by the hospital. At least four of 
 those who moved died within just a few days after their relocation. Three 
 others were sent to homeless shelters.\n\n“While I’m glad we’ve 
 reached an agreement with the federal government to pause a significant 
 portion of these transfers, it shouldn’t have come to this,” said Mayor 
 London Breed. “When we entered this recertification process, we asked for 
 18 months’ window to ensure that our residents did not receive any 
 disruption of care at Laguna Honda. We were given four months, and we’ve 
 seen the disastrous results of that requirement. We are ready and willing 
 to confront any and all challenges we have to make Laguna Honda work, but 
 that commitment should not conflict with the care we have provided for so 
 many for so many years.”\n\n“We are glad to be in agreement with CMS 
 and CDPH (California Department of Public Health) and all understand that 
 Laguna Honda residents have complex needs and that transferring them is 
 often a challenge,” said Roland Pickens, CEO with the San Francisco 
 Health Network and interim CEO with Laguna Honda Hospital. “Our staff are 
 providing Laguna Honda residents with the best care possible while we all 
 work towards recertification with CMS. Laguna Honda has served San 
 Francisco’s most vulnerable residents for 150 years, and we plan to do so 
 for another 150 years.”\n\nRELATED: Death and despair amid forced 
 relocations at Laguna Honda In April, CMS decertified Laguna Honda and cut 
 the facility off from government-subsidized health care after the hospital 
 was found out of compliance on multiple safety inspections, including 
 finding illicit substances and drug paraphernalia on site, and failure to 
 adhere to some hygiene and equipment safety protocols.\n\nSome nursing home 
 experts have argued that Laguna Honda’s violations pale in comparison to 
 some of the abuses and issues at other skilled nursing facilities that have 
 remained open. Laguna Honda itself had a high-profile scandal when staff 
 took inappropriate photos of patients in 2019; however, the facility did 
 not face the kind of threat of termination that it is navigating 
 today.\n\n“It was absolutely unprecedented for this to happen in a 
 facility that large. This is unreal,” said Patricia L. McGinnis, 
 executive director of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, a 
 statewide consumer advocacy organization. “We have facilities in this 
 state that shouldn’t be able to care for my cat, much less a human, and 
 they stay open.”\n\nFollowing mounting pressure from families, doctors 
 and disability advocates, hospital officials told patients on Thursday that 
 they would pause the transfers.\n\n“This is great and a step in the right 
 direction, but they should make the pause permanent. The minute I got the 
 news, I contacted the families I’m in touch with at Laguna and they are 
 just delighted,” said former City Attorney Louise Renne. “But now, 
 everyone is wondering, what does the pause mean? At least for the time 
 being, it’s a relief and a step in the right direction.”\n\nOn Tuesday, 
 the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass a resolution that calls 
 on U.S. Secretary Xavier Becerra of the Department of Health and Human 
 Services to “suspend the requirement to relocate and transfer vulnerable 
 patients at Laguna Honda Hospital while it is trying to regain 
 certification.”\n\nThe resolution also called for payments for 
 government-subsidized health care plans to continue through the end of the 
 year. However, at this point, funding is still slated to dry up in 
 September or November, depending on if the hospital is given a possible 
 two-month extension that federal regulators have stated is 
 possible.\n\nAdvocates and family members of Laguna Honda patients said 
 there was great relief from the decision to slow down the discharges. But 
 ambiguity around the looming decision over whether the hospital will regain 
 certification continues to worry many with connections to the 
 hospital.\n\n“The Closure Plan has had challenges and negative impacts 
 for our community. As a result, Laguna Honda worked with, and at the 
 direction of, CMS, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and 
 the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) to pause the 
 discharge and transfer of all residents,” a letter sent to Laguna Honda 
 staff on Thursday reads.\n\n“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the 
 families of those who have passed. As a system we must do better,” said 
 Ali Bay, a spokesperson for the California Department of Public Health. 
 “CDPH is providing technical assistance to the facility to improve its 
 policies and procedures related to transfers.”\n\nThe vast majority of 
 patients at Laguna Honda are low-income and rely on Medi-Cal and 
 Medicaid.\n\n“We are deeply concerned about the reports that residents of 
 Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehab Center have died after being transferred to 
 other facilities. Laguna Honda is under a closure plan that was developed 
 and approved after significant health and safety violations were found at 
 the facility,” said CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “Recent 
 events at the facility are unacceptable, and it is our priority that 
 regardless of income, people have access to safe, high quality care 
 conditions.”\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/08/08/18851483.php
SUMMARY:Keep Laguna Honda OPEN! Press Conference-Speak Out To Stop Closure of Laguna Honda
LOCATION:Laguna Honda Hospital\nIn Front of Old Entrance Steps\n375 Laguna Honda 
 Blvd.\nSan Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2022/08/08/18851483.php
DTSTART:20220813T180000Z
DTEND:20220813T193000Z
END:VEVENT
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