The Oregon Department of Human Services is doubling down on its commitment to the safety of the state's most vulnerable populations with a newly expanded action plan, informed by a consultant's preliminary findings on how adult care facilities are managed and supervised. The plan addresses concerns raised by both the third-party consultant Alvarez and Marsal (A&M) and a report from the Oregon Long-Term Care Ombudsman's office released in April 2024, which pointed toward the need for more robust oversight mechanisms.
Aligning their steps with A&M's suggestions, ODHS has outlined immediate and stretch goals to ensure safety violations don't slip through the cracks—goals that include updating protocols, clarifying policies, and reinforcing training within specific timeframes, and they're not stopping there; bolstered budget requests and contractor hire-ups are part of this comprehensive rework. Nakeshia Knight-Coyle, Ph.D., director of the ODHS Office of Aging and People with Disabilities, touted safety as their program's "number one priority," in a statement obtained by the ODHS newsroom.
Drastic improvements are on the horizon with the ODHS introducing amendments to policies involving Letters of Agreement and statutory requirements; these policies take aim at addressing provider performance issues and laying down the law, literally, for care providers.
It's more than policy though, it's about people—ODHS is turning a keen eye inward with strategies to lift staff spirit and manager support, these efforts were inspired by feedback from an employee survey and existing feedback, moves that promise a ripple effect of holistic improvement stretching from the internal operations of ODHS out to the Oregonians depending on its services. Concrete numbers will be crunched to judge just how much hands-on-deck will be needed to keep up with a growing demand; a second A&M analysis is crucial in this regard, and the final verdicts are set to unfurl by June 2025, according to the ODHS website.
