Home care 1) How are incidents of abuse, neglect, exploitation or injury reported internally?

The agency seeks to promptly respond and solve issues of abuse, neglect, exploitation and injury. It is the responsibility of the client/member to report any incident to the agency through the administrative office or through the immediate supervisor. Members are given contact information like agency phone numbers, email address, and fax. Incidents must be reported immediately in order to allow the agency to respond to the situation immediately. It is the responsibility of the supervisory board to assess any incidents and come up with a reasonable solution to the situation. Members are allowed to verbally communicate any incidents as well. Family members can walk into the agencies premises within 24 hours of an incident and report it. Any incident is recorded in the Incident Report DD-191 form.

The form captures details of the type of incident that took place, the direct service provider involved, the time the incident took place, the consequences that resulted from the incident and the immediate action taken by the direct service provider after the incident happened. After the incident has been captured in the incident report form the immediate supervisor will be assigned the responsibility of assessment. The immediate supervisor will investigate the factors that contributed to the occurrence of the incident. It the incident was an injury or accident better protection measures will be put in place. Where the incident involves neglect, abuse or exploitation of the member by the direct staff immediate action will be taken to prevent future occurrence. The prevention plan may include a change of the direct staff and immediate disciplinary action. Where injuries are suffered due to the fault of the direct staff the agency will bear the cost of repairing the damage.

All incidents reported verbally through phone calls or through a visit to the agencies premises must be documented in the incident report form. Follow up measures will be instituted to reassess whether the prevention measures put in place are effective. The supervisory board is charged with making sure that the services offered are effective.

2) How are incidents of abuse, neglect, exploitation or injury reported externally?

There are incidents whose nature is beyond the scope of the agency to handle. Incidents of violence against the member or the agency’s staff that is assessed as requiring legal action shall be reported to the police. Where a member is abusive to the direct staff or exploits them the incident shall be reported to the family or guardian. Incidents of non-compliance with the standard conditions and terms for the qualified vendor shall be reported to the DES/DDD support coordinator. Where a member reports abuse, exploitation or neglect by the direct staff the agency can forward the incident report to the protective services. All the incidents of exploitation, injury, neglect and abuse should be reported immediately to the agency through the direct supervisor or the administrative staff. Members, their family or guardian can choose to pursue legal action parallel to the action taken by the agency.

All incidents communicated must be documented in the incident report DD-191 form. Incidents should only be communicated to the police only when cases violence, abuse and/or exploitation are encountered. The police should be able to immediately respond to a 911 call to subdue any emergency situation. Protective services should be sought if incidents of emotional, physical, sexual and verbal abuse are experienced or discovered. Incidents of neglect can also be reported to the protective services. The protective services are put in place to make sure that the rights of individuals to quality care and services are upheld. The adult protective services are put in place to protect adults dealing with considerable disabilities from abuse, exploitation and neglect.

If the agency is unable to promptly deal with any incident of abuse, neglect, or exploitation them the guardian or family member has the legal right to contact the adult protective services. The protective services are administered by the state or local regulatory or gaining departments. They use multidisciplinary approaches in their objective of assisting older adults who are victimized.

3) Describe the internal review process for incident reports, including trending, and how corrective action is implemented.

Incidents reports to the agency are handled and resolved by the supervisory board and disciplinary boards. After an incident is reported to the immediate supervisor or the administrative unit immediate action is taken. The first responsibility is to evaluate the incident and ascertain that indeed what the member, their family or guardian has reported is verifiable. The investigations will involve the parties involved in the incident including...

After this the immediate supervisor will report to the supervisory board with the investigation outcomes. The supervisory board will apportion responsibility for the incidents reported and institute measures necessary to avert the occurrence of such incidents again.
The supervisory board may recommend performance improvement measures, better monitoring tools and processes, advanced staff training, changes in staff policies or even termination of a direct or supervisor. The supervisory board is charged with ensuring that the agency delivers outstanding services to the members at all times. This is made possible by alleviating any incidents. To make this possible the supervisory board will institute incident prevention measures, treatment for injured members, and legal action for physically and emotionally abusive, negligent and exploitative staff. Internal incident reviews must be completed within two weeks of reporting. The agency will also conduct a monthly review of the recurrent and trending incidents with a view of identifying the areas that need better improvement. Any protective measures instituted are subjected to monitoring. The objective is to find out whether the measures instituted are effective.

Most of the time incidents occurrence will call for a review of the staff training curriculum. To prevent emotional and physical abuse, exploitation and negligence from the direct staff the supervisory board might have to retain their direct staff and direct supervisors. This might take longer than the two weeks recommended for completion of internal reviews. Any recommended adjustments or changes to the service must be implemented immediately.

4) Describe the complaints/grievances process.

Agency members and staff might have some grievances or complaints in the course of operations. Agency’s direct staff members are advised to forward their complaints to their immediate supervisor if the situation involves the client and the working environment. The immediate supervisor should immediately evaluate the details of the complaint or grievance and identify the need. If the working environment is not favorable due to factors that are beyond the staff’s control the immediate supervisor may choose to reassign the direct staff their duties and reallocate them to a more favorable working environment. At times the client may be troublesome, irritable or exploitative. The communication problem or lack of chemistry between the staff and client may provoke a tense working environment. Troublesome clients may necessitate handling from an experience direct staff member.

Where grievances or complaints relate to staff remuneration or working conditions staff members are advised to forward their complaints and grievances to the human resource department and the directorate. If perhaps the issue is delayed payment of wages the human resource department should be able to issue a comprehensive solution and take immediate action for the release of staff salaries. Internal mechanism for conflict, grievances and complaint resolution are clearly stated in the employment guidelines. The director to the agency has a responsibility of averting any situations that might make the working environment unfavorable for the staff. Staff productivity can be hindered by instances of poor remuneration, poor working conditions such as insufficient equipment (medical supplies, gloves, uniform etc.) and poor coordination of duties. The human resources department will review any staff grievances relating to their working environment and forward any salary related grievances to the finance department. The director has a duty to make sure that all recommendations are implemented immediately with a goal of resolving any situation. The buck stops with the director. Poor communication and coordination in the agency is often to blame for the hitches that provoke complaints from members and staff. The agency coordinator should work towards enhancing capacity to ensure all services are running seamlessly.

5) If your organization has a community advisory group and/or participates in any external advisory groups, describe your company’s involvement. If none, describe your company’s plans to develop, or participate in, a group in the future. (one page)

The agency is actively involved in community affairs. First of all the agency recruits and interviews her staff in collaboration with the community and local government representatives. The company also offers its members to various community advisory groups for projects such as development of sanctuary centers, community security forums, community training initiatives, environmental conservation forums etc. It is the goal of the agency to promote community based activities that look to improve the living conditions of the entire local community. The agency through the…