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As a firestorm descended on the Northern California city of Santa Rosa in October, staff members at two nursing homes abandoned their residents, many of them unable to walk and suffering from memory problems, according to a legal complaint filed by the California Department of Social Services. The state agency is now seeking to close the facilities and strip the managers of their licenses. (Fuller, 9/7)

Last Nov. 6, Hillside Nursing Center in Wake Forest admitted a woman with a diagnosis of COPD and hypoxemia, or a low level of blood oxygen. Nursing notes from Nov. 7 describe the woman, identified in a state report filed with federal regulators only as Resident #4, as “alert and verbal with some confusion.” Ten days later, she was dead. (Goldsmith, 9/10)

Finding a facility for either long-term care for an aging loved one or short-term rehabilitation following a surgery or an injury can be a daunting task. While a number of factors come into play when choosing where to go for care, experts say staffing is chief among them. Research shows staffing is one of the most important factors in quality care at nursing homes, but some experts say state and federal staffing requirements don’t meet the minimum standards that a 2001 study, along with subsequent research, determined necessary for basic quality care. (St. Amour, 9/9)

Atrium Health and Senior Living said Friday that it has reached an agreement with its lender to have a receiver appointed for 32 nursing homes and assisted living centers in Wisconsin and one nursing home in Michigan. The company, based in Little Falls, NJ., has 23 nursing homes and nine assisted-living centers primarily in central and northern Wisconsin as well as the nursing home in Michigan. (Boulton, 9/7)

As centenarians in hospice, June LeBlanc, 100, of Goffstown and Ella Olsen, 102 of Nashua receive compassionate attention from nurses, family members, and paid attendants — but nothing as calming and instantly therapeutic as 30-minute visits from Wolfie — a dog the size of a prehistoric wolf, and Bucky and Nutmeg — miniature horses the height and girth of prize-winning sheep. “It’s something different,” says LeBlanc, who enjoys combing her fingers through Wolfie’s soft fur when he visits Bel-Air Nursing Home in Goffstown, triggering memories of growing up on her family’s chicken farm, where German shepherds protected thousands of birds. (Baker, 9/9)

It is 7:30 on a summer morning in a room overlooking the slate-gray, lapping waters of Lake Erie. Ten or so people, some just arriving at work, some finishing a night shift, sit silently on benches and in armchairs below stained-glass windows. A plump golden retriever named Linus, a therapy dog, wanders from one person to another, gratefully accepting their caresses. (Ollove, 9/9)