To The Editor:
I am thoroughly disappointed with your June 4 article, “iCare Slammed for More Violations.” The article unfairly targeted my companies and the nearly 1,800 dedicated employees who care for a highly diverse population of individuals at iCare’s managed nursing homes in Connecticut. Unfortunately, your article displayed a complete misunderstanding of the state’s review process as well as iCare’s unique role in providing care to special populations who would likely go unserved without our programs for individuals with mental illness and behavioral issues.
The facilities managed by iCare are heavily regulated by governmental agencies, primarily the Connecticut Department of Public Health, which conducts comprehensive inspections of all nursing homes on a routine basis. These inspections, which are known as “surveys,” cover a wide variety of areas, including quality of care, documentation, and resident rights. Given the hundreds of items that are reviewed by DPH during a survey, it is quite unusual for a survey not to identify at least a few areas in which improvement can be made. Nursing home operators often disagree with DPH surveyors regarding the existence, scope, or severity of an alleged “violation.” But instead of engaging in protracted battles with DPH that cost significant amounts of money and unnecessarily detract from the business of caring for residents, nursing facilities commonly agree to enter into consent orders, whereby the facility agrees to take further action to correct any perceived problems, without admitting that such problems actually exist. These consent orders often involve monetary payments so as to reach an expeditious resolution. In 2006 alone, DPH entered into 29 consent orders with providers.
[iCare faces] unusual challenges of serving a variety of individuals, including those with behavioral issues. Much of the time, these residents are not elderly. Rather, they are young, energetic, and physically capable individuals whose actions are often impulsive and unpredictable. We provide a home to these people 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This places upon our employees the challenge of providing appropriate and safe care to the residents while still respecting their legal and ethical rights. Our goal is to help all our residents strive to achieve the highest possible level of well-being, including recovery if appropriate.
Unfortunately, there is little guidance from the state regarding the unique demands of serving special populations. When the existing laws and standards were created, they clearly did not contemplate the type of nursing-home population that exists today. Accordingly, iCare has taken the lead in attempting to form a Behavioral Health Workgroup, with the goal of helping the state create regulations and guidelines that directly address the needs of our residents.
I hope that this letter provides a context that was absent from your article. We encourage the HBJ to learn more about our important health care industry and to hear about the innumerable success stories of our residents and our facilities.
Chris S. Wright
President and CEO
ICare
