Newsroom > DHHS News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

December 12, 2007

CONTACT
Jeanne Atkinson, Communications and Legislative Services, (402) 471-8287

Sound bites from John C. Wyvill are available at http://www.dhhs.ne.gov/audio/

Lincoln – The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is taking action to continue improving services and to protect $28.5 million in federal funding at the Beatrice State Developmental Center (BSDC).

DHHS has received official notice of results from a November follow-up survey by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). That notice said that BSDC did not meet four of the eight conditions required for participation for Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons with Mental Retardation (ICF/MR): Governing Body and Management, Client Protections, Facility Staffing, and Active Treatment Services.

"I want to reassure family members and guardians that we take our responsibilities very seriously and are aggressively addressing the survey findings," said John Wyvill, director of the DHHS Division of Developmental Disabilities. "It won’t be business as usual as we begin to do a lot of work, very quickly."

Wyvill said there were many positive comments made by surveyors from CMS and the Department of Justice, including: "You’ve come a long way and made significant improvements and still have a ways to go; much progress has been noted; the people who work at BSDC are your greatest asset."

DHHS is putting four action steps in place:

• Contacting parents and guardians to reassure them that staff are serving their loved ones in caring and appropriate ways and informing them about changes being put in place.
• ‘Right sizing’ BSDC and moving in a new direction by serving fewer people to address a recurring inability to recruit and retain adequate numbers of staff. Surveyors told DHHS that being short staffed is a major factor in not meeting the required conditions.
• Hiring Liberty Health Care Corporation, which has over 20 years of experience with JCAHO accreditation, CMS standards, and other regulatory bodies and has been an active participant in the preparation for surveys and any subsequent corrective action plans. Their expertise will be used to help DHHS develop the CMS plan of correction.
• Asking Nebraska Advocacy Services to meet with DHHS quarterly to discuss issues relating to BSDC and developmental disabilities services.

Here is the tentative time frame for responding to the follow-up survey:

• DHHS received the official response from CMS the first week in December.
• HHSS has 10 days from December 10 to submit a Plan of Correction for the four conditions that are out of compliance.
• CMS will revisit BSDC after February 7, 2008 to verify that necessary corrections have been made and compliance with the conditions of participation have been achieved. In that case, CMS will halt termination procedures.
• If CMS determines that the reasons for termination remain, the effective date of the termination is March 7, 2008. Approximately $28.6 million of BSDC’s total budget of $50 million comes from Medicaid and other federal funding.

An Immediate Jeopardy citation on client protection was issued during the November follow-up survey and was withdrawn within 24 hours because BSDC immediately developed safeguards to correct the situation.

"Our actions highlight BSDC’s zero tolerance toward abuse or neglect against clients," Wyvill said. "Surveyors said our investigation process to ensure client protection is a good one and that we’re on the right track. However, they felt that some personnel actions taken after physical abuse was substantiated needed to be more defined. We’ve fixed that."

The eight conditions for participation for Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons with Mental Retardation (ICF/MR) are: Client Behavior, Health Services, Physical Environment; Dietary Services; Governing Body and Management, Client Protections, Facility Staffing, and Active Treatment Services.

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