Berens made that point. In Part 2 of the series, he told the tale of one Arlie Leno, who Berens said “committed perhaps his most brazen violation. He sneaked an extra resident into Narrows View.” The law said he could only care for six residents, but he added a seventh, “apparently to squeeze out more profits,” the paper reported. Leno had a long history of violations, but the state seemed to overlook them. Higher-ups overruled field supervisors who recommended that he should lose his license, but when the story ran, Leno’s facility, which had racked up more serious violations than any other home, was still in business.
In Part 3, which ran a few weeks ago, Berens further investigated “the system,” noting that the medical examiner and the police had created a plan to review these homes. A police detective had planned to visit each home where a death had occurred. The plan faced “instant opposition” from families, adult home owners, and doctors who didn’t like their judgments questioned.
The series has brought a few results. Adult homes must post inspection reports and violations and the Department of Social and Health Services will publish online its enforcement actions. While this disclosure is helpful, it doesn’t get at the systemic rot. It certainly hasn’t for nursing homes, where such disclosures are plentiful. We hope the paper will take this series to the next level and dig deeply into the payment system with its screwy incentives that allow such abuse to continue. That leads to money and politics. If Washington is a model for adult home care, it’s only fitting that the state’s premier newspaper become a model for the kind of journalism that can change the system.
A lot of what getsreported by the state investigators of these homes are lies and exaggerations. They appear to have an agenda to to shut them down and most likely its all part of the new healthcare going into effect. What the public doesn't realize is that is a push for cause to hasten the deaths of the elderly. Reasoning is that once adult family homes have all been shut down "it will cost too much to keep the frail elderly alive and they must be euthanized. Adult family homes save the state millions in taxpayer dollars.
Our adult family home license was revoked under fraudulent charges and outright lies by the state investigator who we now understand has a history of bringing false accusations against afh's. They publish these charges on the internet without proof.
#1 Posted by Steven, CJR on Wed 29 Dec 2010 at 04:29 PM