Elder care watchdog less active under Scott

A state office charged with inspecting and investigating complaints against nursing homes has become less of a watchdog under Gov. Rick Scott.

Once well-regarded as a patient advocate, the office of Elder Care Ombudsman has referred an average of 3 percent of complaints to investigative agencies annually since Scott came into office in 2011, a records review shows. Under the previous administrations, between 6 and 10 percent of complaints were referred each year going back to 2001.

The quality of nursing homes and assisted-living facilities has come to the forefront after 12 residents at The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills died when Hurricane Irma knocked out the air conditioning.

Current Elder Care Ombudsman Michael Milliken did not respond to interview requests. As part of his job, he is a registered lobbyist, and communications with the Legislature have to go through him.

“Governor Scott is proud of Florida’s long-term care ombudsman program, which is a national leader and the current ombudsman has over a decade of experience at the Department of Elder Affairs,” said Scott spokeswoman Jeri Bustamante.

The Elder Care Ombudsman is a position each state is required to fill under the federal Older Americans Act, passed in 1965. This year, Florida received about two-thirds of the complaints it did in 2011, when Scott took office. Under Scott, there have been five ombudsmen in six years.

From 2001, the first year for which records are readily available, to 2011 when Scott took over, the ombudsman’s office fielded an average of about 8,200 complaints a year. The most serious complaints get referred to an outside agency for further investigation, and the office referred an average of 614 complaints a year in that time, or about 8 percent of all complaints.

Since Scott took office, the ombudsman has fielded an average of 5,900 complaints per year and referred an average of 179 — or about 3 percent.

The Department of Elder Affairs, which includes the ombudsman program, attributes the decline to an increase in visits by volunteer ombudsmen, stopping problems before they grow into the sort of serious issues requiring further investigation.

“It is misleading ... to imply that complaint investigations are the only interaction ombudsmen have with long-term care residents,” said Elder Affairs spokeswoman Ashley Chambers. “One of the reasons the number of complaints has decreased is because the number of proactive visits has increased.”

According to the department, visits to nursing homes and assisted living facilities went from 3,250 in 2010-11 to 8,698 in 2016-17 — an increase of 167 percent.

On Wednesday, Scott called on the Constitution Revision Commission, which meets every 20 years to propose new state constitutional amendments and is meeting this year, to address elder care. Scott said it must “find more permanent measures to put patient safety first as they propose changes to the Constitution. We must explore every possible avenue to keep elderly, frail and vulnerable Floridians safe.”