Thursday, November 20, 1997

Fairview Back in Compliance, Official Says
By MARCIDA DODSON, Times Staff Writer

COSTA MESA--Fairview Developmental Center, which was cited by a state licensing team last summer for several violations involving patient care and programs, is back in compliance after hiring additional staff, a hospital administrator said Wednesday.
The state facility, which cares for the developmentally disabled, was at risk of losing Medi-Cal funding if the deficiencies were not corrected, said Lynne McKnight, Fairview's assistant to the executive director.
Fairview submitted a correction plan and received $1.5 million to hire 51 additional caregivers and $200,000 to improve vocational services for patients. The state team revisited the hospital Oct. 27 and found that the three areas of deficiency--treatment, staffing and governing--had improved, according to McKnight. No state funds were lost, she said.
Central to all three areas of deficiency were staffing problems, which arose when 177 patients transferred last spring to Fairview from now-closed Camarillo State Hospital, officials have said. The former Camarillo patients--most of them with dual diagnoses involving psychiatric conditions--had different needs from the other patients at Fairview, which traditionally has been home to patients with severe mental retardation and associated physical disabilities.
The vocational training funds have been used to design work programs for the former Camarillo patients, who are generally more mentally advanced and can read and write, McKnight said. They were accustomed to challenging work programs at Camarillo that did not exist at Fairview, she said.
However, she added, Fairview has not filled all of the 51 new positions, and the licensing team continues to have "serious concerns," McKnight said. The team is requiring Fairview officials to submit monthly staffing reports, she said.
Hiring staff is a time-consuming process, McKnight said. In addition to recruiting time, it takes one month from the date the job is accepted for a background check to determine that the employee has no criminal record, she said.