The Evolving Crises at Laguna HondaHospital and Rehabilitation Center
The Evolving Crises at Laguna Honda
Unelected San Francisco Health Commissioners Tried Changing LHH’s Mission — Again
Mayor-Elect Daniel Lurie Should Replace All Seven Health Commissioners
New: 12/8/24 Say Good-Bye to Long-Term Care at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center
Will It Take a Decade-and-a-Half to Get Back to Its Previous Capacity?
Average Increase of 1.5 Patients Monthly to LHH’s Patient Census
New: 11/14/24 Snail-Paced Admissions to Laguna Honda Hospital
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!
Farrell Is Stupidly Lying
11/2/24 Farrell Slapped With $108,180 Ethics ACommission Fine
Postscript: Careful What You Wish For, Mayor You Vote For
Will the “Dream Keeper Initiative” Corruption Scandal Finally Bring Down Mayor London Breed?
11/1/24 More on Mayor Breed’s Scandals
Billionaire Republicans Buying San Francisco Voters
10/1/24 Be Careful What You Wish For, Mayor Who You Vote For!
Kanishka Cheng’s and “TogetherSF Action’s” Truly ALARMING “Project 2024–2028” Post-Election
$8.5 Million Raised Through September 21 to Reduce Citizen Oversight
Vote “No” on “Prop. D,” and “Yes” on “Prop. E” !
10/8/24 Reject “Prop. D” Eliminating Transparent Oversight of Boards and Commissions
List of Actual Projects Nowhere to Be Found
Updated: 10/19/24 Reject November 5, 2024 “Prop. B” Bond Measure
San Francisco Examiner Quotes Dr. Susan Ehrlich’s Nonsense
Costs to Rescue Laguna Honda Hospital Soar to $125 Million $177.5 Million
Updated: 5/26/24 LHH’s Decertification Second Anniversary Disaster
The Costs Continue to Rise!
2/22/24 Updated Costs to Rescue LHH Following It’s April 2022 Decertification
Mayor Breed Orders All Boards and Commissions to Fall In Lockstep!
Supervisor Peskin’s Bogus Rationale Based on Lies
10/26/23 Sudden Death of Remote Public Comment
Milking It For All It's Worth
Laguna Honda Hospital Begs for $18 Million More for Consultants
8/15/23 The Consultant's Bottomless Piggybank
Part 2 of a Two-Part Series
Costs to Rescue Laguna Honda Hospital Inches Up. Again.
7/31/23 LHH Mismanagement Costs Reaches $64.9 Million
Part 1 of a Two-Part Series
Costs to Rescue Laguna Honda Hospital Soars. Again.
7/14/23 LHH Mismanagement Costs Reaches $64.1 Million
Laguna Honda Hospital Received Its Final Warnings
6/282/23 Laguna Honda Admits Its Own Staff Jeopardize the
Hospital Obtaining CMS Recertification
Remind Me: How Did I Reach Old Age So Fast?
6/22/23 Happy Six-Dozenth Birthday to Me: An Accountability
Watchdog Trudges On
Part 2: Qualitative Analysis of LHH’s “Root Case” Problems
5/12/23 Pre-Mortem of a Hospital: One-Year Anniversary
San Franciscans Need to Raise Their Objections — Now
4/22/23 Laguna Honda Hospital’s Revised Closure Plan Just Released
A Secondary Quantitative Analysis of LHH’s “Root Cause” Problems
3/31/23 Pre-Mortem of a Hospital: One-Year Anniversary
CMS Isn’t Playing Around as LHH Managers May Want to Believe
LHH Ordered to to Expedite Hiring Nursing Home Administrators
2/23/23 Temporary Reprieve on Evictions, But Harsh Warnings
An Insider’s History — Part 2:
A Twindemic Involving Restorative Care and “Leaders”
2/15/23 Laguna Honda Hospita's Leadership Boondoggle
An Insider’s History
2/8/23 The Bungled Management of Laguna Honda Hospital
Weeks Following Forced Discharge, LHH Patients Began Dying
1/30/23 Culpability in 12 Patient Deaths
An “Immediate Jeopardy” Violation Risked LHH’s Recertification
1/25/23 Troubling Laguna Honda Hospital Developments
Key “Root Cause Analysis” Report Missing in Action?
12/2/22 Progress on LHH Settlement Agreement Compliance
Renne’s Grandstanding Gambit Goes Belly-up
10/21/22 LHH Patients’ Class Action Lawsuit Tossed Out
City Attorney Alleged LHH Should Not Need Re-certification, But …
10/21/22 LHH Settlement Agreement Requires CMS Re-certification
Ongoing Problems Threaten the Hospital’s Re-Certification
10/13/22 Worrisome Laguna Honda Hospital Issues
Taking Ownership of SFDPH's Mistakes
9/12/22 Rising Costs to Rescue Laguna Honda Hospital
Epic Part 3: More Laguna Honda Hospital Problems
8/17/22 City’s Useless Health Department “Epic” Database
One Informal Dispute Resolution Request, Three Appeals
8/1/22 City’s Pathetic Defense of Laguna Honda Hospital
Understanding Severity of Laguna Honda Hospital Inspection Violations
7/15/22 “Kafkaesque” Nonsense … Was Itself Nonsense (Article Forthcoming)
Laguna Honda Hospital — The Rest of the Story
7/8/22 LHH Cuts 120 Beds, Hires Nursing Management Fat
Looking for Out-of-County Discharge Data in the Underwear-and-Socks Drawer
2/6/22 Health Department Busted for Violating FOIA Laws
February 15 Election Recommendation
1/10/22 San Francisco’s D-17 Seat in State Assembly
Proposed Housing on Laguna Honda Hospital Campus
12/17/21 Senior Housing on “Cortese List” (Toxic) Site
Where’s the Status Reports? Where’s the Housing?
12/3/21 2019 Affordable Housing Bond’s Invisible Ink
Another Public Health Crisis:
11/20/21 Why Dumping Patients Out-of-County Is Wrong
Third in a Series: Don Juan’s Other Reckless Daughter
11/8/21 Breed’s Reckless COVID Mixed Messaging Saga
California Wildfires and PG&E Bailout Play a Big Role
8/22/21 Will Newsom Escape Recall?
Reducing SFPD’s Bloated Sworn Police Officers
7/17/21 Police Commission’s Staffing Guidance
Can You Trust a Public Health Department That Lies?
6/22/21 SFDPH’s Epic Lie: A $167.4 Million Database That Couldn’t
Pleas for Law Enforcement Budget Reforms
5/25/21 To Defund, or Not Defund, SFPD?
Confronting Out-of-County Patient Discharges
4/27/21 Ken Zhao’s Story
What’s Holding Up Affordable Housing?
4/6/21 Lawsuit Stalls 2019 Affordable Housing Bond
More on Don Juan’s Other Reckless Daughter
2/22/21 Mayor Breed’s Reckless COVID First Anniversary
Don Juan’s Other Reckless Daughter
1/12/21 Mayor’s Reckless Nursing Home COVID Reporting
Laguna Honda Hospital Housing Project Reduced to 100 Units?
12/30/20 Invisible Affordable Housing on Public Land
Isolating Seniors on Northwest Parking Lot Is Inhumane
10/7/20 Laguna Honda Hospital: Inappropriate Site for Housing
Staffing Levels Should Be Negotiated, Not Set in City Charter
9/30/20 Yes on “Prop. E,” Police Minimum Staffing)
Vote “No” on “Prop. A”
9/28/20 COP’s and Robberies (Bond Measures)
On Housing Propoal for Lagunda Hospital’s Campus
9/26/20 District 7 Candidates Cavalier Responses
Let ’em Eat Cake: Happy Birthday to Me; No Raises for Thee!
Initially Posted: 8/16/20 Updated: 8/23/20 City Managers Reject Mayor Breed’s Budget Plea
Hiding Data Is Ineffective Against This Virus
New: 7/10/20 COVID-19’s Cruel Visit to Laguna Honda Hospital
COVID in Nursing Homes: A Geriatrician Worries About Her Mom
6/28/20 The City’s COVID Curve Hasn’t Flattened
COVID-19’s Impact on Affordable Housing Production
4/13/20 Public Records Are “Essential” During a Public Health Pandemic
It’s a Newspaper’s Duty to Print the News and Raise Hell
2/25/20 A Civic Duty: Digitize Neighborhood News
Restoring Older Adult Classes Cut at City College
1/7/20 Pickpocketing the Dignity Fund’s Wallet
Patient Safety Endangered by a Cultural Wall of Silence
12/2/19 LHH Leadership Fingered in Patient Abuse Scandal
Why is Supervisor Yee’s Senior Housing Proposal So Hush-Hush?
12/18/19 LHH Housing Proposal Ignores Dire Shortage of Skilled Nursing Facility Beds
Multiple Efficacy Problems Questioned
11/7/19 Invisible Successes Navigating the Homeless
Citywide Public Land Re-Zoning
10/2/19 “Local Control” Excludes Neighborhood Input
Vote “No” on Prop. “E” November 2019!
Lottery in Bond Disguise (72 ≠ 517)
9/3/19 Who Affordable Housing Bond Leaves Behind
Vote “No” on Prop. “A” November 2019!
7/4/19 Breed’s Blank Check: Re-Zoning Public Lands
A Land-Grab, by Any Other Name, Developer’s Will Love Vote “No”
6/7/19 High Costs of Wrongful Arrests and Convictions
$53.4 Million Costs of Failure to Sufficiently Reconsider
November 2015 $310 Million Affordable Housing Bond Update
5/6/19 Affordable Housing That Wasn’t
Sneak Peek: November 2019 $500 Million Affordable Bond Preview
Incestuous Intersection of Politics and Money
4/16/19 Regime Churn of SFERS’ Trustees
What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Scott R. Heldfond’s Connections to
Aon Plc and
San Francisco–Bangalore Sister City Initiative…
San Francisco's Severe Shortage of Elderly & Disabled Healthcare Facilities
2/14/19 Supervisor Yee Must Prioritize Full Spectrum
Out-of-County Patient Discharges: Is What’s Past, Prologue?
Following Untenable Legislative Track Record as Supervisor ...
Posted 12/8/18, Updated 1/3/19 Mayor Breed Needs to Clean House at DHR
11/3/18 Mayor's Patronage Nepotism Jobs Alive and Well
Escalating City Employee Bloat: The New “$400,000+ Club”
10/8/18 A Few November 2018 Election Recommendations
9/1/18 Slow-Moving, Stalled, Legislation
City Employees Living in Each City District at Risk
Delayed Legislation Deprives
City Employees of Legal Protections
7/3/18 Monetizing Laguna Honda Hospital’s Campus
Rezoning Public Land for Residential Housing: A Land Grab
D-7 Supervisor Norman Yee’s Plan for Increasing “Assisted Living”
and “RCFE” (Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly) Units
in San Francisco Goes
Horribly Wrong — Reduced to “Senior Housing” Units?
6/8/18 Affordable Housing Bond Continuing Oddities
The $310 Million Housing Bond
5/6/18 June 2018 Election Recommendations
Don’t Vote for London Breed!
4/3/18 $70 Million in Taxpayer Funds Up in Smoke
When City Employees Violate Laws, Taxpayers Saddled
More on “Prohibited Personnel Practice” Lawsuits Filed by City Employees
Updated 3/8/18 Financing 250 Laguna Honda Senior Housing
Funds for Affordable Housing Must Be Made Public
Postscript: D-7 Supervisor Norman Yee Suddenly Withdraws Support for Project
2/4/18 San Francisco’s #MeToo Sexual Harassment Scandal
“Time’s Up” on One of San Francisco’s Dirty Little Secrets
12/14/17 Temporary Reprieve From Exile
San Francisco St. Luke’s Hospital Update
11/13/17 City Sues, But Continues Investing In, Big Oil
Will Brian Stansbury Thwart City Attorney Dennis Herrera?
9/1/17 Mayor’s Hiring Spree Isn’t a “Black Swan” Event
Bloat in Patronage Hiring
8/30/17 Eviction and Exile: A Watershed Moment
On the Proposed St. Luke’s Hospital Sub-Acute and SNF Units Closure
by Teresa Palmer, MD and Patrick Monette-Shaw
7/1/17 Part 1: CGOBOC’s Failure to Monitor Change Orders
“Oversight Committee" Provides Scant Oversight on Bond Measures
7/1/17 Part 2: CGOBOC’s Other CSA Duties as the CARB
“Oversight Committee" Provides Scant Oversight on Bond Measures
6/1/17 SF: Sanctuary City for Housing Developers
Pitting Neighbor Against Neighbor for Affordable Housing
Dueling “Inclusionary” Affordable Housing Proposals:
Peskin-Kim v. Safai-Breed-Tang Ordinances, and the HOME-SF Killer
5/1/17 Where’s Our Torchbearer for the Elderly?
Remembering Laguna Honda Hospital’s Sister Miriam Walsh
LHH Demographics Changes, Patient Dumping, Disastrous Community Living
Fund and Dignity Fund, and Non-Existent Senior Services “Gap Analysis”
4/5/17 Slouching Toward Whistleblower Protections
City Employees Deserve Strengthened Anti-Retaliation Law
3/8/17 Addendum: Housing Project Below a Cliff Starts Sampling Soil
Companion Article to “Affordable Housing Bond Measure Lurches Down a Cliff,” Below
3/3/17 Affordable Housing Bond Measure Lurches Down a Cliff
Bait–’n–Switch: 250 Laguna Honda Boulevard Senior Housing Proposal and Other Issues
2/8/17 Who’s Auditing Mayor’s Hiring Binge?
5,090 and Counting: Bloat Under Ed Lee
Updated 2/10/17 — Added Two Tables Showing 6,414 Increase in Number of Employees
1/14/17 Mayor Ed Lee’s Five-and-a-Half Year Hiring Binge
Joel Engardio & Heather Knight Don’t Know What They’re Talking About
Updated 12/14/16 What Price for a Seat at the Table?
Open Letter to “Al” Casciato: Retirement Board Isn’t For Sale!
“Miscellaneous” Members Deserve Balanced Representation
10/2/16 Housing Delays = Justice Denied
New Problems With $310 Million Affordable Housing Bond
San Francisco's Incredibly Shinking Affordable Housing
9/29/16 November Election Recommendations
Voter’s Beware: Don’t Be Suckered!
9/7/16 Support Housing Commission, Public Advocate
Open Government: Two Crucial Good Ballot Measures
7/6/16 Bullying Costs Soar to $41.6 Million
Update on Retaliation Against City Employees and Civil Grand
Jury Whistleblower Report
5/13/14
The Three-David Race for Assemblyperson
A Fight for the Soul of San Francisco
4/16/14
Affordability Mayor: A Housing Bait–and–Switch?
On the Mayor’s Seven-Point Housing Plan
3/9/14
Sandbagging, Legal Fairy Dust, and Double-Speak
San Francisco Fights Open Government in California Appellate Court
City Seeks to Strike Down Key Sunshine Provision
(Contains Further Reading Section)
12/01/13 Four
Major Sunshine Victories
Advancing Open Government in San Francisco
11/03/13
A Victory for SFGH’s Dialysis Patients
Margaret Meade Was Right: Small Groups of Thoughtful, Committed
Citizens, Can Change the World
10/10/13
Department of Public Health’s Dialysis Crisis
(’Round the Circle-Game We Go)
Why Outsourcing SFGH’s Dialysis Renal Center to Laguna Honda
Hospital Is a Really, Really Bad Idea
(Dedicated to Jimmy Manges)
9/09/13
Squished Together: Misery Visits Company
(Patient Dumping Part 2: Mental Health Patients Dumped Into
LHH or Out-of-County;
Non-Ambulatory Elderly Squished Into Vacated MHRF Space; SFGH
Inpatient Dialysis Patients Squished Into Outpatients at LHH)
6/30/13 Of
Mold and Men
(Marc Slavin's Ouster as LHH’s Spokesman; $600,000 Mold Problem
in New Kitchen; Board of Supervisors Approves Patient Dumping)
6/11/13 Who's Dumping Grandma?
(Patient Dumping: City Attorney's Hypocrisy, Laguna Honda Hospital's
Shame)
5/27/13 High Cost's of City Attorney's Advice
(Retaliation and Bullying of City
Employees)
 If the Current Plan to Downsize LHH by 420 Beds by Not Building the West Tower Is Approved by the Health Commission and the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's, Mayor Newsom’s Ten-year Plan to End Homelessness Will Displace 180 of Laguna Honda’s Complex Medica and Chronic-Care Residents, Plus Another 240 People |
In 1999, voters passed Prop. A to rebuild Laguna Honda
Hospital and Rehabilitation Center as a healthcare facility. What the Mayor doesn’t understand is that voters have NOT authorized him to retroactively change Prop. A to build housing. |
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Fact Sheet Neighborhood Associations December 16, 2004 Town Hall Meeting LHH Downsizing StraightFacts Summary |
 Graffiti that appeared during the Bridge Demolition" Party held at LHH, August; 2004. View: LHH Main Building, Southeast From Bridge. |
Save LHH Flyer Flyer for Nov 16, 2004 Meeting of Health Commission Sudden Changes to November 16, 2004 Health Commission Meeting |
FOR OVER 50 YEARS, LAGUNA HONDA HOSPITAL AND REHABILITATION CENTER (LHH) has been a medical-model, long-term care skilled nursing facility (SNF) serving San Franciscos elderly, frail residents. Doctors, nurses, and ancillary staff at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center (LHH) are a close-knit interdisciplinary team providing skilled nursing and rehabilitation care to our elderly and people with disabilities, compassionate, safe environment.
Now, about the only way people can get into LHH is if they have a dual, or triple, diagnosis (that would include some sort of medical problem requiring skilled nursing care, along with either a second diagnosis of mental illness, or a third diagnosis of substance abuse). Those with a single diagnosis (say Alzheimers, Parkinsons, or a traumatic head injury), are finding it more difficult to be admitted into LHH. Increasingly in San Francisco, unless you have multiple diagnoses, your access to public health services is being curtailed. (The same phenomena occuring at LHH is also occuring, or soon will, at so-called AIDS integrated service programs funded with Ryan White CARE Act money that have curtailed eligibility to only those having dual and triple diagnoses, leaving those with a single diagnosis of AIDS to fend for themselves.)
Gleaned from public records
and public records requests, conflicting smoke signals are occurring
about the true amount of cost overruns of the LHH replacement
facility, and how cost overruns will affect the downsizing of
LHH from the 1,200 beds promised to voters who passed Proposition
A in 1999.
Now, LHHs future is in dire jeopardy, and irreversible decisions
about its future are to be made by the end of December 2005!
There is good reason to believe that the new LHH may open with 300 to 400 fewer beds than promised in 1999. Should that occur, losing 300 to 400 SNF beds in one fell swoop, and another 180 beds converted for locked units, could increase San Franciscos SNF-bed shortage in the year 2020 (just 16 years from now) to between 1,588 and 2,880 beds short.
The problems of the disabled, frail, and elderly seeking admission to LHH are caused by a shortage of nursing homes and funding cuts. How did this come to be? And how did the voters of San Francisco get mislead, yet again, by vague ballot initiatives that result in not getting what the voters were promised?
LHH Downsizing StraightFacts Summary