Page 14A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Saturday, April 29, 2017
SENIOR: Not all complaints the same
Continued from 1A
called Suttle Care had one of
the lowest rates in the state,
with zero complaints made
since 2005.
While that appears to
paint a clear picture at first
glance, Tom Peine, a public
affairs officer for DHS, urged
people to realize it’s not that
simple.
“Say you have a facility
with five licensing violations,
and another with just one. Is
the one with five violations
worse? Not necessarily,” he
said. “If the five violations
were things like failing
to post a daily meal plan,
whereas the one violation
was failure to provide a
proper medication system —
that’s of concern to us.”
The Oregonian’s report
provides links to specific
complaints for each facility,
and the complaints are
varied, including residents
wandering from the facility,
exposure to potential harm
and loss of resident’s
property. Some reports are
much more serious, such as
inappropriate sexual contact
by one resident to another.
The report states that failure
by caregivers to protect a
resident from such incidents
constitutes abuse.
Peine said there are two
aspects to the complaints.
“There’s abuse, and
there’s licensing or over-
sight,” he said.
When DHS first receives
a complaint, it goes through
a screening process.
“Someone looks to see if
this fits into one of the nine
definitions of abuse covered
by the law,” Peine said.
If the action does not fit
into the abuse definition, it
may be a violation on the
licensing side.
Once the complaint
has been categorized, it is
forwarded to the correct
agency, be it law enforce-
ment, a long-term care
ombudsman, or a licensing
agency.
For complaints of abuse,
DHS sends someone to the
facility within 24 hours.
The investigator explores
possible leads, looks for
Staff photo by Kathy Aney
Dietary aide Ashley Wilson sets tables for dinner
Thursday at Sun Terrace in Hermiston.
paperwork and talks to
people at the facility who
may be involved. They then
forward their findings to the
safety oversight committee
in Salem, which determines
what happens next.
If the claims of abuse are
substantiated, the facility
may be sanctioned or an
employee may be fired and/
or charged with a crime.
Investigators may also
discover that the issue is
not abuse. In that case, the
department has to determine
whether the violation is a
licensing or oversight issue.
“For example, if someone
suffered a fall while trans-
ferring from a bed to a chair,
that may not rise to the level
of abuse,” Peine said. “But if
(a resident’s) care plan states
that someone is supposed to
be around, that’s their obliga-
tion.”
Each facility has to get
re-licensed every two years,
at which time surveyors
check on everything from
resident meals and care plans
to medical services.
“There are hundreds, if
not thousands, of things they
need to do,” Peine said.
Megan Moon, the director
of nursing at Regency Herm-
iston Nursing and Reha-
bilitation Center, said it’s
difficult to make a judgment
about a facility based solely
on the complaints data.
Regency received a fairly
high rate of complaints, with
only 16 percent of facilities
throughout the state receiving
2017 RAV4
more.
“We are aware of the
complaints,” Moon said.
“Those reports kind of give
facilities a bad rap, they don’t
accurately represent what we
do.”
Moon said Regency
received seven complaints
in 2015 and one in 2016. Of
those complaints, three were
determined to be abuse.
“A lot of them are things
we call in ourselves,” she
said. “Say a person got out of
the building. I’m mandated
to call that in.”
She said that some of the
complaints are investigated
by Adult Protective Services,
but some are just matters of
compliance.
“It’s kind of a raw deal
for a lot of facilities,” she
said of the reports. “They
don’t reflect what is going on
inside.”
Matt Joice, the execu-
tive director of Hermiston
assisted living facility Sun
Terrace, said any time they
have complaints, they are
investigated by the state. The
report had four complaints
listed for Sun Terrace in
2015, and none in 2016. Of
those four, two were cited as
abuse.
“We do our best to avoid
complaints from the get-go,”
he said. Sun Terrace had
one of the lowest complaint
ratings in Umatilla County,
with 69 percent of facilities
in the state showing higher
complaint rates. “Accidents
will always happen, but we
VILLEGAS: Primus
wants to review raw data
from suspect’s analysis
do anything we can.”
Joice said he was proud of
Sun Terrace’s rating.
“It validates all the hard
work the team puts in,” he
said.
Peine said if an action
is identified as abuse, the
department then has to deter-
mine who is in the wrong.
“If it’s abuse, an indi-
vidual may be involved, but
there’s also responsibility by
the facility,” he said.
For example, an investi-
gation will take into account
how quickly a facility acted
to fix a problem after they
found out about it.
“If a facility, as soon
as they discovered (the
problem), did all they could,
the employee may have been
sanctioned or terminated.
That may be all you can
expect from the facility. You
may have to the conclusion
that they’re not responsible,
and that the individual is at
fault,” Peine said.
If it is determined a facility
is out of compliance, it may
be closed to new tenants until
the problems are fixed or, in
more serious situations, may
be closed altogether, and
alternate homes found for the
residents.
Overall, Peine said, the
department’s goal is to iden-
tify problems and prevent
them from happening again.
“Part of the process as an
abuse investigator is to figure
out, what are you going
to do to prevent that from
happening?” he said.
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
VILLEGAS
someone fakes mental
problems.
Primus, again refer-
ring to the report, said
Templeman found Villegas
“endorsed a very high
number of psychiatric
symptoms,
including
unusual symptoms that
occur infrequently in
genuine patient popula-
tions. He also reported
symptoms with far greater
severity than most patients
with genuine psychiatric
disorders. Results suggest
that he was feigning psychi-
atric symptoms during this
assessment.”
Primus said he needed the
defense to provide the “raw
data” that created the report
so an independent psychol-
ogist could evaluate it. The
prosecutor said this also
matters in light of the news
reports about Montwheeler,
“who was able to fake it for
20 years,” under the eyes of
the state Psychiatric Security
Review Board.
Montwheeler,
49,
feigned insanity for 20
years to avoid prison,
according to the reporting
of Les Zaitz of the Malheur
Enterprise.
The
Oregon
State
Hospital released Mont-
wheeler in December. The
next month, police allege
Montwheeler kidnapped
his ex-wife from Idaho,
drove to Ontario and
stabbed her to death in the
front seat of his pickup.
And while fleeing police
with the body, he crashed
into another vehicle, killing
the other driver and injuring
that man’s wife.
Montwheeler is in the
Malheur County Jail on
charges of aggravated
murder, assault and kidnap-
ping.
Defense attorney Kara
Davis said the state already
had the ability to examine
Villegas as much as it
wanted, although it was not
ideal.
“I’m not necessarily
comfortable with letting
the state have chance after
chance to talk to doctor after
doctor to get the results, to
get whatever results they’re
looking for,” she told the
court.
Primus clarified he
was not seeking another
examination of Villegas,
but to have an expert look
at the raw data the defense
experts used in making
conclusions. He also said
the state has requested this
kind of data in previous
murder cases.
Judge Hampton said if
the two sides can’t work
it out, the state can file a
motion with the court, and
she would set a date to hear
the arguments.
The issue is likely
to come up Thursday
afternoon in Hampton’s
courtroom, where Villegas
has another status check.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
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