Kay,
One of the DON's in NJ wrote an article for the NJADONA newsletter. It is about what she found from reporting a possible abuse, and what she discovered by going to trial with this employee. She talks about getting pictures, statements, diagrams etc. It is very good. I would be happy to email the article to you if you would like it. Just let me know.
Sherrie

Sherrie,

I would love to also have a copy, I have done several investigations and my administrator has nick named me Colombo but there is alway that doubt did I get it right. The article would be a great help. Thank you!!

Send me your email address. The one I wrote in 2002 became the "Official Policy" for the State of Nebraska regarding nursing homes, in 2004.

I have a policy on prevention, investigating & reporting alleged abuse.

When we have an allegation, our initial response is to ensure the resident is safe, the accused staff member/resident/resident family member is removed from the scene. Then we attempt to determine if "abuse" actually happened or was it just an accident. The Administrator, DON & SSW are the investigative team & the Administrator has the ultimate decision on whether or not we report the allegation.

Knowing this, we don't report many things, because our initial investigation reveals "no abuse occurred". However if we determine "we know something happend, but are unsure if it was intentional abuse or not", we report that.

If you report every allegation, that's all you will ever get done. Nothing else would be accomplished & the staff would walk around fearing for their jobs. Many of the smarter ones would just leave rather than put their licensure/certification at risk.

Managers have to have a bit of trust in their staff yet have the determination to get rid of the ones that don't conform to our policies. I have had to terminate several employees for alleged abuse. Of these approximately half have lost their license/certification. The other half have been cleared.

The DOH has come in to investigate each one, without any substantiation of the facility being at fault.

So send me your email, I'll send a word document of our policies.

Mark