“It’s a great day for the industry as a whole,” Silverado President, CEO and Chairman Loren Shook said Thursday in response to the dismissal of all criminal charges against the senior living operator regarding 14 deaths that occurred early in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shook called the charges leveled by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office “baseless” and “egregious,” and the dropping of the case a “vindication for the industry.”
“We were all doing our best to take care of people at a time when nobody know what was going with COVID, what it was, let alone how to defend against it,” Shook told McKnight’s Senior Living, adding that it could have been any company in the broader healthcare industry defending itself.
Silverado’s transparency of communications companywide with staff members, families and residents built trust, which landed the company near the top of Great Place to Work rankings prior to the pandemic, Shook said. The CEO said that he expects the dismissal of the case to allow Silverado to once again retain its spot on the list, adding that the company’s Glassdoor rankings have increased since the pandemic.
“One of the biggest resources we have is trust,” Shook said. “We all just communicated often and deep in the organization. We were constantly trying to look for answers and pivoting sometimes twice a day, tapping all the resources of public policy leaders, universities and other colleagues in the field. It was a time where you had to be nimble.”
Silverado, Shook, Vice President of Clinical Services Kimberly Butrum and former Silverado Beverly Place Administrator Jason Russo were charged earlier this year by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office with 13 felony counts of elder endangerment and five felony counts of violation causing deaths tied to 14 COVID-19-related deaths that occurred in Silverado Beverly Place, a Los Angeles memory care community. The company denied all charges.
“The baseless, egregious claims unfairly attacked our caregivers, who selflessly and courageously served our residents, worked to provide essential life-sustaining services and quality of life throughout a 100-year pandemic,” Shook said in a release. “We are proud of the loving and compassionate care they demonstrated during the most trying circumstances.”
The company further said that the judge questioned why the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office had filed the case to begin with, consuming “valuable resources in an already overloaded legal system.”
“We’re just excited to be past this and be able to continue to work on the innovations our company is so well known for,” Shook said. “We haven’t let this get us down.”
Shook said that Silverado, which operates 28 memory care communities across 10 states, improved census more than 11% in the face of the charges, with the company coming out stronger than when it went into the situation. He said his message to Silverado’s employees was a “love greater than fear” operating point of view, and that even when things happen that are out of one’s control, people can control their responses and weather the storm.
“That’s what we did,” Shook said.
Silverado said that the company’s caregivers “bravely prioritized” the news of residents during the pandemic. The company said it established protocols adopted by memory care providers and referenced by public health departments, licensing and other agencies throughout the country for employers and healthcare environments. Those protocols, Silverado said, helped senior living providers protect residents and staff members and ensured that memory care residents “continued to be treated with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
“We honor the courageous among us who met the challenge and saved others through their dedication and service,” Butrum said in the press release. “It does not go too far to call them heroes.”
A spokesperson from the District Attorney’s Office told McKnight’s Senior Living that it is considering its next moves.
“We are obviously very disappointed at the court’s ruling,” the spokesperson said. “Our believe in the strength of the case has not changed. In the coming days, our team will convene to determine next steps.”
The charges
The original complaint alleged that in March 2020, Silverado broke its own protocols by admitting a new resident from New York, a then-COVID hotspot, into Silverado Beverly Place. The complaint also alleged that the community did not test the man for COVID-19 and did not quarantine him once he began showing signs of illness.
New York was considered the epicenter of the pandemic at the time the man moved into the community. The complaint alleged the community experienced a COVID-19 outbreak as a result, and 45 employees and 60 residents were infected with the virus. Fourteen people died.
Investigators with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health conducted an almost three-year investigation into the memory care community following the death of Brittany Ringo, a 32-year-old nurse. District Attorney George Gascon said that the investigation revealed that the Silverado management team was aware of the risks of admitting the new resident, failed to follow protocols to protect employees and residents, and admitted the man due to financial considerations.
Shook said that Cal/OSHA’s decision came after the California Department of Social Services found no deficiencies during three investigations related to the admission in question. He added that the judge cited that decision from the “licensing authority with expertise to evaluate whether it was a proper admission or not.”
Relatives of some of the deceased residents and Ringo, who helped move the man into his room, filed lawsuits in December 2020 against the community.
