Scandal in Tampa

Disability Rights Florida Accuses Brain Injury Center Of Blocking Abuse Investigations
(Bloomberg)
October 8, 2012

TAMPA, FLORIDA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily Express] Florida’s federally-designated disability rights advocacy group sued one of the country’s largest brain-injury centers, alleging the facility is blocking its efforts to probe complaints of recent patient mistreatment.

The Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation prevented an investigator from interviewing witnesses and from visiting locations on campus where alleged abuse occurred, according to the lawsuit, filed by Disability Rights Florida in U.S. District Court in Tampa. One investigator was asked to leave the Wauchula, Florida facility, the advocacy group said in the lawsuit.

One complaint involved a patient who was allegedly improperly restrained. The second concerns an allegation of two staffers physically abusing a patient. Both incidents occurred “within the past week or so,” said Sylvia Smith, a spokeswoman for Disability Rights Florida.

Bloomberg News has reported on dozens of cases of alleged abuse and neglect since 1998 at the for-profit, 196-bed facility, known as FINR. Patients’ families or state agencies have accused the center’s staffers of abuse or care lapses in at least five residents’ deaths over that time frame, two of them in the last two years.

Entire article:
Brain Center Stymied Abuse Investigators, Lawsuit Claims
http://tinyurl.com/ide1008122a
Related:
Abuse of Brain Injured Americans Scandalizes U.S.
http://tinyurl.com/ide1008122b