complaint·January 24, 2025

Allegation: Staff interfered with resident's visit with the Long Term Care Ombudsman Regarding the allegation: Licensee/Administrator Tony Kim interfered with resident's visit with the LTCO (W1). It is alleged that W1 arrived at facility to conduct an annual visit on 8/30/24 when the Licensee/administrator (Tony Kim) insisted on supervising W1 while she spoke with resident (R1); therefore, interfering with her duties . On November 5, 2024, Licensing Program Manager (LPM) Eva Alvarez and Licensing Program Analyst (LPA) Deborah Lee conducted a telephone interview with W1 who confirmed the allegation stating that she was interfered with while conducting her duty of meeting privately with the residents. When explaining that she had authority to meet privately with residents without interference, Mr. Kim continued to argue about her being in the resident's room without him. W1 further stated that she decided to terminate the visit because Mr. Kim wanted the visit to be on “his terms” by being present during her meeting with residents which goes against their rights to meet with the LTCO privately. On November 5, 2024, LPA Lee interviewed Licensee/Administrator Tony Kim via telephone who informed her that during W1’s visit to the facility, while in R1’s room, he needed to be present with W1 for safety reasons but W1 stated that she needed to speak privately with R1. According to Mr. Kim, W1 began yelling, “I can go anywhere I want, and you can’t stop me!” Mr. Kim further stated that he told her to “get out of the room right now and get your supervisor on the phone.” Lastly, Mr. Kim stated that shortly after W1 and her supervisor spoke on the phone privately outside of facility, W1 said she was ending her visit and left the facility. On January 24, 2025, LPA interview with staff 1 (S1) reveal that residents' family and other visitors have met privately with residents. Interviews with R1-R5 reveal that (1 ) out of ( 5) residents is familiar with a Long Term Care Ombudsman (LTCO) and after LPA Lee explained what a LTCO does, ( 4 ) out of ( 5) residents said they would be okay with meeting and speaking with an LTCO privately. Based on interviews conducted, the preponderance of evidence standard has been met therefore the above allegation is found to be SUBSTANCIATED. Citation issued during today’s visit please see LIC 9099D