OKLAHOMA CITY –
The Fox 25 Investigates team has been looking into state facilities responsible for caring for our veterans. We’ve told you about specific complaints by a veteran who says a staff member hurt him at the Norman Veterans Center and the case of a family that says their grandfather was near death after not getting proper treatment following at assault at the Claremore Veterans Center.
The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs says those types of incidents are not common, but we took a closer look at the inspection reports of each of the state’s seven long-term-care facilities and found each one has a history of documented concerns.
They drug me out finally after leaving me in there with the call bells going off, my arms were blue, Norman VA Center resident Mike Simmons said of an incident where he was left hanging in a sling.
It pulls your shoulders up and it hurts your shoulders and your armpits, the disabled Vietnam veteran told Fox 25, It’s kind of like being crucified.
Simmons provided Fox 25 a picture from the hidden camera he’s legally allowed to have in his room that shows him hanging in the sling with no staff around. He says he’s been left hanging for up to an hour at a time.
Simmons said he’s also been assaulted by other veterans at the facility.
I had my back to the door, and I had a lot of the veterans that wander into my room, and I always tell them You’ve got the wrong room,’ Simmons told Fox 25, When I said that and turned around the guy slugged me.
But it isn’t just residents being assaulted. Simmons told Fox 25 staff members have also been attacked. According to the ODVA’s own annual report there were 305 workers compensation claims filed in the last fiscal year. Records from the ODVA indicate there were 179 reported assaults on staff in the last fiscal year, but many of those did not result in injury. In the last 12 months the ODVA says there have been 67 resident-on-resident assaults, the previous 12 months there were just 50 such assaults.
It’s not a daily occurrence, it’s not a weekly occurrence, but it does happen, said Shane Faulkner the spokesperson for the ODVA. Faulkner says there is little anyone can do to stop all assaults in long-term care facilities.
I’ve got a stack of studies about dementia patients and about dementia patients assaulting other people, Faulkner told Fox 25, Of all the information I’m reading no one has anyway of stopping that either.
However, Faulkner does say there is a problem at ODVA centers.
It is high turnover. It is an industry problem, but we’re not going to rest on that and say it’s the industry, Faulkner said.
We’ve had lot of problems in the past with the seven VA centers here, said Wes Bledsoe, the founder of A Perfect Cause, Ii know there’s been movement, there’s been effort to make improvements, but those improvements have not reached the residents in the facilities yet and we need to find out why not.
Bledsoe is a long-term care advocate and says a recent law change requires the ODVA centers to be inspected by the state health department, rather than the federal Veterans Administration.
Even after the legislation was passed we still have veterans that are suffering needlessly due to actions by staff in the VA centers.
Fox 25 reviewed 2014 health department inspection reports for the Ardmore, Claremore, Clinton, Lawton, Norman, Sulphur and Talinina VA centers and found numerous violations listed for each.
The VA centers were required to submit plans of correction, but even after inspectors pointed out problems the first response from many centers on their action plans was a disclaimer that says the correction plan “was not an admission to the truth” of the reported deficiencies.
Of that disclaimer Faulkner said That wouldn’t be the correct attitude about it, but I don’t know if that was what was said or that was what was implied.
Faulkner says the reports he’s reviewed show most deficiencies are the result of staff not following their training. He said mistakes made during inspections are likely not isolated incidents, but he said the ODVA is trying to focus on retaining supervisors to make sure the rules are followed at all times.
We think it starts with leadership, and we’re constantly trying to get the right people, Faulkner said.
The guys down there are receiving great care we have a waiting list to get in our center, if we weren’t giving great care first of all our beds wouldn’t be full, they are and we wouldn’t have a waiting list of veterans waiting to get in, Faulkner said.
I’m grateful for the good employees, Simmons said of the nurses and aides who care for him. He says he just wants to make sure administrators are ensuring the policies are being followed and veterans are protected.
The ODVA says it is working to increase salaries to be more competitive with private long-term care facilities, but they have not found the magic bullet to help reduce turnover.
Simmons and Bledsoe continue to petition the legislature for better oversight and inspections of long term care facilities and making sure our veterans get the best treatment possible.
