Six Months On – How Are We Doing on Timely Reporting?
April 06, 2021
As you will recall, one of the more concerning issues which we discussed with the implementation of the revisions of the Licensing Regulations last year was the potential for dire consequences if there were repeated incidents of “late reporting” of either serious incidents or allegations of abuse or neglect. We requested data from DBHDS on performance for the first six months – the data is summarized here.
While the summary data from the most recent QIC report reflects performance which exceeds the DOJ target, we are aware of some real concerns expressed by providers in the application of the rules for citation:- Larger providers are likely to have more reports and, consequently, more risk for error which might cause a late report. While data is kept by service (not more globally by provider), it does not mitigate that particular concern.
- There have apparently been multiple occurrences of citations for late Abuse/Neglect reporting when the identification of the potential was discovered during the course of a review or analysis of a serious incident. Reporting in a timely manner should be based on when the provider identified that abuse or neglect by a staff person may have contributed to or caused the serious incident, or may have delayed or prevented appropriate care not when the serious incident occurred. And,
- The provider should have ample opportunity to rebut the assertion of “systemic” non-compliance in subsequent citations by describing within their response to 12VAC35-105-160 D.2. the factors which contributed to the late report which were distinct and different from a previously acknowledged cause. That should be clear in the absence of a citation for failure to comply with a previously prepared CAP.