Salem-Based Sunwest Faces Suit by Residents

MICHAEL ROSE
Statesman Journal
March 29, 2007
Residents of a Sheridan assisted living facility have hauled Sunwest Management Inc. into court, accusing the Salem senior housing manager of charging for services it doesn’t provide.
The litigation threatens Sunwest with a class-action lawsuit, which could potentially have several thousand plaintiffs. Fifty residential facilities in Oregon operated by Sunwest, including those in Keizer, Stayton, Monmouth, and Woodburn, are named in a lawsuit filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
At the heart of the dispute: allegations that Sunwest’s standard admission agreement misled residents about the number of staff available to provide daily care, such as help with medication.
Sunwest understaffed assisted living homes and “made a considered decision to promote profit at the expense of their contractual and legal obligations to residents,” according to the lawsuit.
Sunwest issued a statement calling the lawsuit “frivolous and inaccurate.”
The lawsuit demands that Sunwest stop the alleged unlawful trade practices. It seeks an unspecified amount of restitution, attorney fees, and other relief from the court.
The lawsuit needs to be certified as a class action before it advances.
The cost to live in the Sunwest facility starts at about $1,500 a month, the attorney said.
While residents are sometimes encouraged to pay for more services, the facility doesn’t add more or better trained staff to provide additional care, Stebner said.
In court papers, the plaintiffs’ allege staff ratios described in admission agreements counted all staff members “even those who were not employed to or qualified to act as caregivers.”
Sunwest manages retirement, assisted living and memory-care communities. The senior housing owner and operator has about 180 facilities nationwide. Among the many Sunwest facilities named in the lawsuit suit:
In January, Sunwest settled three lawsuits that accused it of ignoring staffing problems at its Meadowlark Assisted Living facility in Yreka, Calif. The California suits alleged staffing issues contributed to residents suffering serious, and sometimes, fatal injuries from falls. Terms prevented attorneys from discussing details of the settlements.
Stebner, the same attorney who filed the recent lawsuit in Oregon, also represented families in the Meadowlark cases.
mrose@StatesmanJournal.com or (503) 399-6657