Lathrop’s leadership puts BSDC Back on Track
Jan 19, 12:03 PM CST
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2010
Contact: Vic Covalt, State Chair
(402) 434-2180
Lincoln, NE – After nine years of neglect by the governor’s office, testimony before Senator Steve Lathrop’s Legislative Developmental Disabilities Special Investigative Committee, shows improvements are being made at the Beatrice State Developmental Center (BSDC). Senator Lathrop has led the way investigating the causes for the problems at BDSC, and developing and implementing corrective actions for the center.
BSDC was once a nationally recognized facility for excellence in care. Senator Lathrop’s committee found a precipitous drop in BSDC care standards since 2001. It found that BSDC had been the victim of unwise budget cuts and policy decisions. Since 2001, staff had been dramatically cut to meet increasingly tight budgets for BSDC.
But since 2006, BDSC has failed to meet federal care standards for the facility, resulting in the loss of $25 million per year in Medicaid funding.
Eventually the Federal Government had to sue Heineman. Then high risk patients of BSDC were involuntarily transferred out of BSDC to hospitals and other care facilities. At least eight lawsuits have been filed over abuse, injuries and deaths which occurred as a result of the substandard care received by residents.
Nebraska has spent more than $4 million to provide care to these transferred patients. The costs of Heineman’s indifference and neglect continue to mount.
Beginning in 2008, Senator Lathrop and his committee forced corrective action to bring BDSC back into regulatory and care-standards compliance. These changes included change of adminstration at BSDC and the hiring of more and more qualified staff at the facility.
Testimony last week from the BDSC’s new administrator to Senator Lathrop’s committee indicated that the center may pass a 2010 federal inspection, necessary for recertification and resumption of federal funding. BSDC had not been able to make that claim since 2005.
It is not just a coincidence that both the BSDC problems and the Johanns-Heineman era began in 2001.
And it is not a coincidence that once Senator Lathrop stepped up, things at BDSC got better.
Thank you to Senator Lathrop and the Legislative Investigative Committee.
Vic Covalt
Nebraska Democratic Party, State Chair
30
– by Lisa Olivares | Send this to a friend
