California – An accumulation of more than 11,000 complaints is a result of California’s Public Health department’s failure to manage nursing homes probes as reported by a state auditor.
Based on State Auditor Elaine M. Howle’s records, it was found that the complaints filed against the public health department of the state had been open for a year on average. This timeframe is referred to by Howle as irrational and very concerning. There are around 370 open complaints raised by ‘immediate jeopardy’ patients which mean that they likely caused serious injury or worst, death. What’s more disturbing is that there are even cases that have stayed open for a decade already.
California’s Public Health department is responsible for making sure that the residents of the thousands of its facilities around the state are safe. They don’t require an investigation to be completed that is why now that there’s an audit, the records show wide office to office discrepancies.
Failure to manage urgent care clinic and nursing home probes can have a grave impact on public health considering that a lot of patients in the 2,500 facilities of the Department of Public Health need urgent care. What’s said is that there is no available assistance for everyone because of unimproved health services.
According to a concerned citizen after learning about the results of the audit, it’s highly important for the management of urgent care clinics and nursing homes to be handled properly. She added that it’s frustrating for residents to not get the kind of care they deserve. With this audit she’s hoping that the public health department would take speedy action in improving its urgent care near me and nursing home services.
In a written statement from the state health officials who refused to be interviewed, they appreciate the opportunity to improve their services. They also wrote that they would be reporting their progress in taking action to avoid failed management in their facilities statewide.
The audit recommended that California’s Public Health department establishes a formal monitoring process for its investigations on incidents and complaints reported by the nursing homes and set a time frame as to when they can be completed. Also, the Howles recommended that the department figures out the number of inspectors it needs to help with the incidents so that they backlog can be reduced and for it to be able to keep up with its newer complaints received.
The director of the public health department, Ron Chapman, promised to increase district offices supervision. In response, the department agreed to work with the offices to improve timeliness saying that it would set a firm timeline for completing its investigations.
Hearing about the auditor’s findings didn’t surprise the long-term care ombudsman of the state Joe Rodrigues and he said that there’s been long questionable oversight and management of California’s Public Health department.
