VALLEY NURSING HOMES CITED SUPPORT EXPECTED FOR BETTER STAFFING LEVELS.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Most nursing homes in the San Fernando Valley region received citations for violations that could or did cause harm to their residents, according to a report to be released today.

The study is a more detailed breakdown of data reported in Wednesday's Daily News that showed 98 percent of Los Angeles County nursing homes received citations for serious problems.

Today, Assembly speaker Robert Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, other lawmakers and the union representing nursing home workers, which compiled the reports, are expected to announce support of an Assembly bill to increase nursing home staffing levels.

Union spokeswoman Lisa Hubbard said the union seeks to improve the quality of care in nursing homes by requiring homes to hire more staff.

``We believe that nursing homes should be held accountable for improving the quality of care in their facilities and not just receiving billions of taxpayer dollars to do with as they wish - either pocket as profits or send off to shareholders elsewhere,'' said Hubbard of the Service Employees International Union which represents about 10 percent of the state's nursing home workers.

But nursing home administrators attacked the report, saying that the SEIU was scapegoating them to advance a political agenda. They said the report distorts reality.

``It sounds a lot worse than it is,'' said Carole Lillis, administrator of the Verdugo Vista Health Care Center and head of the regional chapter of the California Association of Health Facilities.

``It's the SEIU making this noise - their motivation is frighten and get everybody to join the union.''

The SEIU analyzed facilities that received citations for violations that caused actual or potential harm to residents, looking at homes in specific Senate districts in the Valley.

An actual harm violation is one that caused injury, such as a broken bone or bed sore, to a nursing home resident, and was the fault of the home, according to Monica Austin, program manager for the county's health facilities inspection division.

Potential harm violations are for those that could - but didn't - cause harm to a resident, such as excessively hot water temperature in a resident's room or nurses following improper procedures when inserting feeding tubes.

Among the report's findings, based on 1999 data:

--Senate District 20, represented by Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, the central and northeastern San Fernando Valley: Of the 30 homes, seven had violations of actual harm and 22 had potential harm violations.

--Senate District 21, Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, representing Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and Sunland-Tujunga: Of 55 homes, 43 had potential harm violations and nine had actual harm violations.

--Senate District 23, Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, the Southwest Valley and Westside of Los Angeles: Of 26 homes, 10 had actual harm violations and 16 had potential harm violations.

But Lillis said the county inspections include some 500 different points, and while facilities are likely to get at least one or two citations that doesn't mean all of them are bad places for their residents.

Using potential harm violations, she added, to evaluate a facility can give a distorted picture.

``It's like saying if your kid's in the kitchen and he can reach the hot water tap, he can harm himself, but it doesn't mean he will harm himself,'' Lillis said.