Hawaii: Advocates for Elderly Sue State Over Inspections of Care Homes

The state’s failure to post inspection reports of state-licensed care facilities online has prompted advocates for the elderly to go to court to force the state to comply with the law. The Hawaii Department of Health has failed to comply with the law for the past 18 months. The Kokua Council for Elderly Citizens has been writing letter to the agency urging officials to post the records. On Monday, the group filed a lawsuit against Health Director Virginia Pressler to get a judge to order the department to follow the law. “For one reason or another, the Department of Health has decided to fail in its obligation to protect seniors and their families making these difficult choices about long-term care facility placement,” said Lance Collins, a public interest attorney who is representing the council, an advocacy group for seniors that was founded in 1977. More than 12,300 residents live in roughly 1,700 long-term care facilities throughout Hawaii, including nursing homes, adult residential care homes, community care foster family homes and assisted living facilities. These range from smaller homes in residential settings with one or two clients per facility to larger institutions with dozens or more beds. The state generally licenses the facilities on an annual basis and is required to post the inspection reports that occur during relicensing on its website within five days of the inspection.

Source/more: Honolulu Civil Beat

David Wingate is an elder law attorney at the Elder Law Office of David Wingate, LLC. The elder law office services clients with powers of attorneys, living wills, Wills, Trusts, Medicaid and asset protection. The Elder Law office has locations in Frederick and Montgomery Counties, Maryland.