State Regulatory Agencies Should Be Held Accountable
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Two sisters suspected their aunt was being abused by staff at Emily P. Bissell Hospital, a state-run nursing home in Wilmington, DE, and installed a concealed camera, also know as a “Nanny Cam”. What they learned confirmed their worst fears of physical and mental abuse.
The nieces took action and hand-delivered a DVD of the incidents of abuse to their state’s agency that “supposedly” monitors the welfare and investigates allegations of abuse of nursing home residents, called the Division of Long Tern Care Residents Protection.
Initially, the nieces discovered their aunt on her back, covered with dried vomit and bruising on her arms. The aunt stated they were mean to her prompting them to invest in a “Nanny Cam”.
One particular episode shows a Bissell staff member becoming very angry with their aunt. The aunt made a simple request to have her head elevated on another pillow. The staff member warns her to calm down, and the following is what transpires:
“You don't like it when they give you shots, but you can't be acting like that.” The aunt pleads for assistance: "Please help me. Please help me." The staffer replies: "You're gonna stay like that, as far as I'm concerned."
Seconds later, the staffer yells for the aunt to "stop!" leans over the bed and points her finger inches from the aunt's nose. The staffer walks to the other side of the bed as the aunt pleads for help. "Stop it right now," the nurse responds. "Because we're gonna call the cops on you. We're gonna put you in the nuthouse." The staffer then grabs the aunt's left wrist and uses it to strike the aunt in the face. "That's what we're gonna do," the nurse says before walking back to the other side of the bed, where she strikes at the aunt's hands and face before pulling the call button from the wall, summoning assistance.
Three staffers enter the room. One asks the aunt: "What are you doing choking people?" The nurse then tells her colleagues that the aunt punched, kicked and choked her.
Long Term Care nor Bissell took action until The News Journal began an investigation of the claims. Hospital officials seized the camera and halted visitation rights. Three employees were dismissed and two placed on unpaid suspension. The Attorney General’s Office is investigating.
In my experience with our state regulatory agency, Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (known as TDADS), too often State officials do nothing when the issues of neglect and abuse are first presented to them. They have too many cases of abuse and neglect to investigate; therefore, the State does not due an investigation regarding the reported allegations and simply adopts the position of the facility.
I have had many conversations with local reporters and have tried to inspire someone to research the issue of how many investigations by TDADS ever find abuse or neglect. I know it can't be many as was found to be the case with the aunt at the Emily P. Bissell Hospital. The case was investigated and unsubstantiated. I just received in the mail today, another TDADS investigation regarding a sexual assault, resident to resident, which was unsubstantiated even though they reviewed medical records indicating a sexual assault occurred.
We often see stats regarding hospitals, doctors and nurses but no one is reviewing what TDADS is doing; how they are conducting their investigations; nor the results or lack of results from their investigations. Something has to be done.