Over the decades, there have been news reports and state investigations into abuses at Michigan nursing and foster homes -- an the issue that doesn't go away.
The latest: The agency responsible for inspecting nursing homes and adult foster care facilities failed to notify authorities in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services of neglect and abuse complaints from patients, Chad Livengood of The Detroit News writes.
That information is in a state audit released Tuesday, the paper says:
A report by Auditor General Doug Ringler says the adult foster care licensing division within failed to report abuse allegations to Adult Protective Services division within the department in 12 of 48 cases — 25 percent — auditors sampled between Oct. 1, 2010 and Feb. 12, 2014.
“Although licensing policy requires staff to report all allegations of abuse, neglect and/or exploitation to APS, the division that state that staff did not consistently follow this policy because they believed that they should establish reasonable cause before making referrals to APS and that staff had varying interpretations of the facts that should warrant referral to APS,” state auditors wrote in their report.
The Adult Foster Care and Homes for the Aged Licensing Division also failed to ensure the facilities it regulates conduct background checks of all employees.
