GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) -- There are nearly a thousand homes in West Michigan that service people with everything from disabilities to dementia. And if you or a loved one ever need to rely on one of those homes for care, it's smart to do your homework.
State inspections reveal distracted staff making serious medication errors, staffing shortages, verbal and physical abuse, and even deaths at adult foster care homes and homes for the aged that led to state violations.
There are group homes in Michigan that serve all types of needs when someone doesn’t require 24-hour care at a nursing home but needs supervision because they’re physically disabled, developmentally disabled, mentally ill or elderly with dementia. In Michigan neighborhoods, the thousands of adult foster care homes and homes for the aged house nearly 50,000 people -- as many as are in nursing homes.
Larry Horvath, the director of the Bureau of Community and Health Systems, says the state is doing the best it can to keep the homes open that are safe and closing the ones with repeat violations.
"Unfortunately, errors do occur,” Horvath explained.
“If we took the license away for every error, it would be pretty tough for people to find places for care.”
STATE INVESTIGATIONS DESCRIBE DEATHS
According to a 2013 state inspection of a Grand Rapids home, a son warned staff his father was having trouble urinating. His father didn't get the help he needed and died the next day from ‘urosepsis due to a urinary tract infection.’
At a different Grand Rapids home in 2012, another report shows, a resident with a history of wandering off wore a tracking bracelet and had alarms on her doors upstairs. Still, she managed to leave her room, go downstairs, through the lobby and outside without supervision. A passerby found her lying outside near a pond in a pool of blood. She was hospitalized and died days later.
Another 2012 report shows a resident of the same home had a bed alarm to alert staff if he got up in the night. A staff member removed it. When the resident got up, he fell, was hospitalized and died.
MAP OF KENT COUNTY HOMES AND VIOLATIONS
Target 8 has compiled a list of licensed adult foster care homes and homes for the aged in Kent County as of Nov. 2, 2015 and developed the interactive map below. Homes identified by the state as having at least one violation within the last year (as of Nov. 2, 2015) are marked with a red pin. Homes identified by a state database as having no violations within the last year are displayed in blue. Readers using the WOOD TV8 app can find the interactive map on woodtv.com’s mobile site.
HOMES RARELY LOSE LICENSES
All of the homes mentioned in the state’s special investigations are still up and running.
“If the event is so egregious and the negligence is there that the provider will not correct, then we will take the license away,” Horvath, the Bureau of Community and Health Systems director, said.
He added that a license can be revoked after one violation.
“For the most part, you have to take a look at the totality of the provider," he said.
The state has stripped homes of their licenses after the home showed a pattern of failing to fix problems, but the numbers show it's not often -- usually around 20 homes statewide lose their licenses each year.
FIND OUT IF YOUR HOME HAS A TROUBLED HISTORY
The only way you would know if a home had a troubled past is if you did your own checking.
The state of Michigan's website offers tools for you to search for a home, find out which type you need and read past inspection reports.
State resources:
- Adult Foster Care and Homes for the Aged Licensing Division
- Who Needs Foster Care
- Statewide Search for Adult Foster Care/Homes for the Aged Facilities
Tuesday on 24 Hour News 8 at 6 p.m., Target 8 speaks with the family of a well-known Grand Rapids community activist who died at an adult foster care home. You'll also hear what the home has done to improve since the death.