What Liberty Of Indiana Is Doing To Keep The People At The Fort Wayne State Developmental Center Safe
The situation
When Liberty of Indiana was called in, the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center was facing two immediate jeopardy citations issued by the Department of Justice. Essentially, an immediate jeopardy is a citation that says if you don't fix the specific problem, people may get hurt. And your federal funding will get cut off. You have ten days to remedy the situation.
The solution
Experience counts - and it counts even more so when the clock starts clicking on a 10-day deadline. Since all of Liberty's corporate executives have extensive clinical and management experience in the specialty they currently manage, Liberty's Vice President of Operations, Dr. Karen Peret, came in and immediately assessed the situation at FWSDC. And then she called in her hand-picked team of nationally known experts, clinicians who've "been there, done that" and know exactly what to do to remedy the problems.
The results
Liberty of Indiana evacuated the immediate jeopardies within ten days. What's significant about this accomplishment is that the Liberty team had just walked into the facility - and were completely unfamiliar with the buildings and facilities. Bottom-line: experience counts. And it's that experience - and the ability to get things done - that is making the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center a safer place to live and work in today.
Ensuring safety
So what actions has Liberty taken to ensure the safety of the people at the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center?
- Analyzed why certain individuals had a high risk and incidence of falling and developed a safety plan for each person. Created a database to keep track of the risk and incident statistics and developed an ongoing overview review process.
- Corrected a misinterpretation of the freedom of movement section of the human rights policy and immediately put offending individuals under one-on-one or one-on-two supervision. Conducted immediate and intense training in human rights.
- Hired an outside organization to access and provide counseling to residents who are sex offenders.
- Established nursing care plans, a Department of Justice requirement.
- Set standards and policies on healthcare.
- Instituted quality assurance initiatives.
- Created and conducted inservice programs on specific conditions for individuals with developmental disabilities.
- Created and conducted inservice programs for the staff on how to properly lift and move individuals.
A continuing mission
And Liberty of Indiana's dedication to keeping our people safe doesn't end when our individuals with developmental disabilities transition from the Center to the community. Liberty of Indiana has contracted with
CQL - the Council on Quality & Leadership - to follow our individuals into the community. CQL will do a six month and one year follow-up to make sure that our individuals have been placed properly in good environments for them.
And peace of mind
Why is Liberty doing this? Simply put, both for your peace of mind and ours. We have dedicated, caring staff at the Fort Wayne State Development Center that need to know that the individuals that they've cared for and loved are indeed thriving in the community. Now they can be reassured that they will be.
