LITTLE ROCK — Scores of developmentally disabled patients who were moved when the Alexander Human Development Center closed over concerns about their care are healthy and well served at new facilities, lawmakers heard Friday.
Of the 109 residents who were transferred when the Alexander center closed in June 2010, 59 are living in privately run facilities, 45 were transferred to other state facilities and one is living independently, according to a state audit presented to the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee.
Four others have died, according to the report.
“As a result of our review, we concluded that all of the surviving former residents of the Alexander center are receiving care and supervision,“ said Doug Spencer of the state Division of Legislative Audit. “Each individual appeared relatively healthy, clean, well fed and content as well as properly supervised.”
Rep. Anne Clemmer, R-Benton, requested the study after receiving telephone calls from a retired employee of the Alexander center who was concerned about the safety of the residents.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Clemmer said the person was pleased with the report.
Spencer said auditors looked at the case files of the four residents who died, as well as their death certificates on file with the state Department of Health, and found no indication that a lack of care or supervision in any way contributed to their deaths.
One issue of concern discovered, Spencer said, was that some former Alexander center residents were dropped off at their new facilities with luggage in hand and had trouble adjusting to complete strangers and changes in routine and environment.
“As a result, the former residents were reported to have spent several days and nights vocalizing fear and confusion and displaying physical outbursts towards themselves and others,” he said.
The audit recommended that the state Department of Human Services implement a new plan to improve the transition process, Spencer said.
DHS officials, in their response to the audit, said a new transition plan has been implemented.
Gov. Mike Beebe announced last year that the Alexander center would be closed after the state received notification that it would lose its Medicaid funding for continually failing to meet federal requirements regarding the protection of the developmentally disabled men who lived there.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the state in early May 2010, alleging Arkansas centers that care for the developmentally disabled are needlessly institutionalizing people in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Justice Department filed a similar lawsuit in 2009 against the state alleging that the Conway Human Development Center violated the ADA and needlessly institutionalized people.
A five-week trial over the lawsuit occurred in the fall of 2010 and last June a federal judge ruled that the Conway facility complies with federal law. The 2009 lawsuit was dismissed.