The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health told inspectors to stop investigating complaints at nursing homes in order to reduce the backlog of claims, according to an article on the California Healthline website.

There are more than 9,000 pending cases of health and safety complaints at nursing homes throughout California, the article said.

The "Complaint Workload Clean Up Project" has been underway since at least summer 2012, according to internal email messages and memorandums sent by supervisors from LADPH, the article said.

According to the documents, public health officials told inspectors to stop investigating cases that were anonymously submitted and file them as "No Action Necessary."

Inspectors were also told to close investigations and deem them "unsubstantiated" if two investigations had been conducted around the same time and did not identify similar problems.

Inspectors were told to fully investigate claims that:

• Involved alleged abuse or neglect

• Were high-profile

• Were involved in a lawsuit

Read the article.