From The Inclusion Daily Express:
Consultant Suggested Institution Stop Reporting So Many Of Its Problems
(Des Moines Register)
November 3, 2009
DES MOINES, IOWA– [Excerpt] A consultant at a state-run home for the disabled recently proposed that the facility limit reporting resident-care problems to state and federal regulators.
Records obtained by The Des Moines Register show that consultant Judith Johnston also suggested workers at Glenwood Resource Center stop placing detailed reports in residents’ files, since doing so increased “the opportunity for discovery” by the agencies that oversee the home.
“It seems as if the whole thrust of this effort was to cover up these incidents so that the agencies authorized to provide oversight would be kept at arm’s length,” said Sylvia Piper, executive director of Iowa Protection and Advocacy. “That is a huge concern.”
In her weekly reports to DHS administrators, Johnston repeatedly expressed concern that Glenwood employees were going beyond what the law required in reporting “incidents” – a word used to describe real and perceived problems with resident care – to state inspectors.
Another problem, she wrote, was that copies of the home’s detailed incident reports were being included in the individual residents’ case files where other agencies could see them.
Entire article:
Glenwood urged to limit reports
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2009/red/1103b.htm
Related:
Deaths in Iowa’s Institutions (Inclusion Daily Express Archives)
http://www.inclusiondaily.com/news/institutions/ia/iowa.htm
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