Health workers who ignore abuse rarely punished
BY CLARK KAUFFMAN
JANUARY 25, 2009
Lora Washburn thought she was doing the right thing when she told state inspectors about the abuse of an elderly resident at the Iowa nursing home where she worked.
But Washburn was fired a few days after making the report. Her boss at Montrose Health Center accused her of trying to intimidate a co-worker into giving state inspectors information about the alleged abuse. The co-worker, who has admitted under oath that she downplayed her report to the state to protect the nursing home, has since been promoted.
Washburn says this isn't how it's supposed to work. Under Iowa law, all health care professionals are considered "mandatory reporters," meaning they must report cases of suspected dependent-adult abuse. Failure to do so is a crime — at least in theory.
But state officials say there is no record of anyone being convicted of violating Iowa's mandatory-reporter law during the past 10 years. The last known conviction was in 1997, and that resulted in a $50 fine.
"That doesn't surprise me," said Gerald Jogerst, a University of Iowa researcher who has studied elder abuse. "I don't think there are really any teeth in that law. It's just paper. I think we've proven that in Iowa."
The law is supposed to help protect the 40,000 Iowa seniors living in 600 care facilities across the state. In recent years, mandatory reporters who work in those facilities, as well as nursing home residents and their family members, have filed as many as 1,600 abuse complaints each year. The annual number of confirmed cases has ranged from 182 to 580.
"We don't have data on that, but it's kind of a common belief that no one is ever prosecuted for failing to report abuse," he said.
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