By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — Citing chronic deficiencies, Gov. Mike Beebe recommended today that the Alexander Human Development Center be closed.
Beebe’s decision comes less than two months after the state entered into a six-month, $840,000 contract with a New Jersey company that specializes in correcting deficiencies at facilities for the developmentally disabled.
That company, Developmental Disabilities Health Management, continues to manage daily operations at the facility and will assist in transitioning residents to other facilities or into group homes, state Department of Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell said today.
In a report to DHS and the governor Monday, the state Office of Long Term Care detailed myriad mistakes center staff made in handling a patient’s rape allegations against a staff member — mistakes Beebe said contributed to is decision to end the center’s Medicaid certification.
The governor said he also took into account problems with the center’s physical plant, proposed staffing increases and challenges in recruiting and retaining staff for the facility that houses 109 adult men, most of them with both developmental disability problems and mental illnesses.
“We believe these clients will best be served by strengthening the other five human development centers in our system and by pursuing additional treatment options,” Beebe said in a statement released by his office. “We will continue working to improve the care of these Arkansans with disabilities system-wide, both in residential and community-based settings.”
Beebe’s recommendation to close the center goes to the state Developmental Disabilities Services Board for action.
Munsell said DHS officials and representatives from Development Disabilities Health Management met several times over the past few weeks to discuss ways to improve the facility and to “help us move the entire system for those with developmental disabilities forward.”
The results of those discussions, plus the Office of Long Term Care report, which indicated the facility was not making “substantial progress” in correcting deficiencies discovered in February, March and this month, led to the governor’s recommendation to close the facility, Munsell said.
“After several meetings and discussions … it became clear that investing in the system would better serve Alexander clients as well as others in the broader system of both residential and community-based care,” she said, adding the report “reinforces that this is the right decision being made at the right time.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice sued the state, alleging Arkansas centers that care for the developmentally disabled are needlessly institutionalizing people in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The federal government, which state officials say wants people in the centers to be placed in group homes or facilities, sought a federal court order in March to halt new admissions of school-age children to the Conway Human Development Center.
A federal judge denied the motion.
