Long Beach hospital dumped 84-year-old woman with dementia outside locked care facility, daughter claims

An 84-year-old woman suffering from dementia was placed in a cab after treatment at a Long Beach hospital and then dumped in the middle of the night outside a locked Alzheimer’s treatment facility, according to a complaint filed with the state by the woman’s daughter.

“I’m pretty outraged,”  said Costanza Genoese Zerbi, 51, of Long Beach, who filed the complaint against College Medical Center with the California Department of Public Health on behalf of her mother, Savina Genoese Zerbi. “She could have been killed or kidnapped.”

Security video shows Savina Genoese Zerbi, wearing a bathrobe and sandals while clutching a large envelope, first attempting to open the front door to Regency Palms on East Eighth Street in Long Beach at 2:17 a.m. Jan. 13.

Over the next 25 minutes, she appears to grow more confused, alternately pacing through a darkened alley and then returning repeatedly to the front entrance to pull on the door handle and pound on a large glass window.

‘Life in jeopardy’

It’s unknown how long Savina Genoese Zerbi remained outside the Regency Palms, how she gained entry  or who let her back in the assisted-living and memory-care facility.

“It blows my mind that a hospital that can put someone who has Alzheimer’s into a taxi and send her back to a memory care facility that she is unfamiliar with,” he said. “It’s absolutely wrong. They put her life in jeopardy.”

State health department officials declined Tuesday to comment specifically on Costanza Genoese Zerbi’s complaint alleging negligence against College Medical Center.

“The California Department of Public Health investigates all complaints or facility-reported incidents which may violate any state law or regulation within CDPH’s authority to enforce,” the agency said in a statement. “Details about any potential pending or ongoing investigation are kept confidential until the investigation is complete and findings are issued to the facility. There is currently an ongoing investigation at this facility.”

College Medical Center officials did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment on the investigation.

In addition, Christine Tomlinson, executive director of Regency Palms, declined to comment Tuesday, citing federal law that protects the rights of the facility’s residents.

Patient threatened to kill herself

The ordeal began about 6 p.m. Jan. 12 when Savina Genoese Zerbi threatened to kill herself with a nail file in the first week of her stay at Regency Palms, Costanza Genoese Zerbi said.

She initially wanted her mother admitted to Long Beach Memorial Hospital, but a paramedic recommended College Medical Center, a 121-bed acute care hospital at 2776 Pacific Ave., because there would be less of a wait.

Costanza Genoese Zerbi spent about four hours in College Medical Center’s Emergency Room waiting for her mother to be evaluated, but left the hospital about 11 p.m. to attend to her children.

Soon after arriving home, Costanza Genoese Zerbi said she received a phone call from a clinician at College Medical Center who identified himself as Gabriel. She recalled that Gabriel indicated her mother would be discharged, and that he would coordinate her transportation from College Medical Center back to Regency Palms.

William Young, a geriatric consultant from Tustin hired by Costanza Genoese Zerbi, said he tried unsuccessfully to reach Gabriel by phone after midnight on Jan. 13 to determine how Savina Genoese Zerbi would be brought to Regency Palms and when she would arrive.

Staff at Regency Palm also told Young they had no information from the hospital regarding when she was expected to show up.

Young went to bed about 2 a.m. and, six hours later, was stunned to learn from a Regency Palms employee that a taxi had dropped Genoese-Zerbi off outside of the locked facility.

It’s unclear who paid for the taxi ride, but Young believes College Medical Center is responsible for putting the woman in the cab.

Arrangements must be made for transfers

State regulations require that hospitals have discharge policies, and Senate Bill 1152 — signed into law last year — requires hospitals to develop and maintain those policies. Hospitals are prohibited from transferring or discharging patients to another health-care facility unless arrangements for the transfer have been made in advance.

Costanza Genoese Zerbi said she is hopeful the state health department will take swift action to investigate her allegations against College Medical Center.

“I want to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else,” she said. “At the end of the day she may look a grown-up, but she has the same ability as a toddler to take care of herself. It’s stunning the hospital would not deliver her to a responsible person.”

California health department evaluators found five deficiencies in 2018 at College Medical Center, more than double the statewide average for hospitals of similar size.

In one instance, the hospital’s administrator told an evaluator that on Jan. 29, 2018, a man employed as a patient safety attendant entered a female patient’s room, where he began rubbing her stomach and asked her to show him her breasts, according to state health department records.

Information was not immediately available regarding what corrective action was taken by the hospital or whether the employee was disciplined.