D.C. Group Home Deaths: No More Funds for Independent Investigation
As we previously posted in DC Metro Area Medical Malpractice Law Blog, adults with mental health disabilities in the D.C. metropolitan area have been subject to a number of disturbing practices in its group home system, including patient deaths. An independent contractor was hired to investigate and recommend changes for improving patient safety.
As reported by the Washington Post, in June, 2006, the agency chief was fired and Kathy Sawyer was hired as a six-month interim replacement for the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration. According to D.C. Mayor, Anthony Williams, this was the first time in many years where an agency head had been terminated.
In a new development, also reported by the Washington Post, Ms. Sawyer recently announced that the MRDDA has stopped referring cases to the outside contractor and will now conduct in-house investigations instead. According to Ms. Sawyer, the funds allocated for the independent investigations are depleted. She indicated that the employees who deleted the death records no longer work for the agency. The D.C. inspector general has begun an investigation of the altered death reports.
Members of the D.C. Council criticized the decision, and Sandy Bernstein, legal director of University Legal Services (representing plaintiffs in a thirty-year-old lawsuit) expressed alarm in the agency's self-investigation. In response, the interim director said that she is concentrating on installing policies and systems that will improve the services provided by the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration. Her intention is to "leave the agency with a good investigative unit, make progress in settling the federal lawsuit, improve the case management system and deliver safe, quality care to some of the city's most vulnerable residents."
As reported by the Washington Post, in June, 2006, the agency chief was fired and Kathy Sawyer was hired as a six-month interim replacement for the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration. According to D.C. Mayor, Anthony Williams, this was the first time in many years where an agency head had been terminated.
In a new development, also reported by the Washington Post, Ms. Sawyer recently announced that the MRDDA has stopped referring cases to the outside contractor and will now conduct in-house investigations instead. According to Ms. Sawyer, the funds allocated for the independent investigations are depleted. She indicated that the employees who deleted the death records no longer work for the agency. The D.C. inspector general has begun an investigation of the altered death reports.
Members of the D.C. Council criticized the decision, and Sandy Bernstein, legal director of University Legal Services (representing plaintiffs in a thirty-year-old lawsuit) expressed alarm in the agency's self-investigation. In response, the interim director said that she is concentrating on installing policies and systems that will improve the services provided by the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration. Her intention is to "leave the agency with a good investigative unit, make progress in settling the federal lawsuit, improve the case management system and deliver safe, quality care to some of the city's most vulnerable residents."