Wednesday, December 28, 2011
The price of failure
If you are in New York State and running a group home for developmentally disabled people, the price of failure is pretty good. One could say it is even better than doing it right.
The problem stems from hasty decisions made four decades ago, when New York faced a court order to stop warehousing developmentally disabled people in huge institutions. The state turned to then-small nonprofit groups, many led by parents of developmentally disabled children, to open group homes quickly.We are just here to give you money. Now you be a good group and don't spend it foolishly.
State officials saw the groups as allies, in need of support more than supervision. And as the organizations matured into multimillion-dollar enterprises, the state’s oversight system did not keep pace.
As a result, from the 1970s until this fall, the nonprofit providers, unlike nursing homes or hospitals, never faced fines when their care was found lacking. The state conducts inspections of their facilities, but the visits are rarely a surprise and are intended to be a collaborative learning experience.
Speaking of the state’s Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, Walter E. Saurack, a former official of a state watchdog agency, said: “They don’t view themselves as an oversight agency. They view themselves as a conduit of money to the nonprofits.” Mr. Saurack was chief of the fiscal investigations unit of the Commission on Quality of Care and Advocacy for Persons With Disabilities.
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