[nfbmi-talk] MPAS Lawsuit

Tue Nov 19 16:24:06 UTC 2013

That is nice of MPAS to sue over access to information from two private
entities, after the death of two persons, however it raises questions for
me.

1.  Is it not true that as I thought, the purpose and mission of MPAS is to
protect and advance the civil rights of persons with disabilities
encountering barriers to equality?  

Now I would agree that in the true sense that death may qualify as a
permanent disability, however, it strikes me as rather strange that MPAS is
the entity that is seeking information to "investigate" the death of two
persons.  So it is not perceived that I do not care about the cause and
responsibility for the avoidable loss of life of two persons, I do in fact
believe that is important, however, I believe that limited resources of MPAS
could and should be better utilized, and suing to get access to information
would be more useful to persons with disabilities who are living and being
denied services as a result of violations of our civil rights under various
laws.

I know for a fact that Joe Harcz and I, and perhaps others within the blind
community have presented much information and documentation to MPAS
regarding the denial of fundamental civil rights, namely, equal access to
our system of justice, through the state administrative hearing process and
the courts, involving the state of Michigan, and the state's denial of a
fair and accessible system for blind persons, to achieve equality and
justice free of conflict-of-interest and non-discriminatory fundamental
access.

Given that background, it leads me to ask my second question:  How many
deaths of blind persons must it take for MPAS to take action against the
State of Michigan for the denial of fundamental rights to equal access by
blind persons?  And my third question:  any volunteers here who will give
their life for our cause?

Of course and indeed, I make light of the extent to which it takes for MPAS
to take substantive action on behalf of persons with disabilities to attempt
to secure our civil rights, however, to me, I believe it says more about the
politics and gamesmanship  that are played by those who are supposed to
promote equal justice and access by persons with disabilities, as well as
the general public.  This point is best demonstrated by the recent
legislation to move the Michigan Court of Claims for the Circuit Court to
the Court of Appeals, and whereby the Michigan judges' association feeling
it could not take a position and speak the truth about the new law, simply
because it just might, and most likely, would cost the state judges an
increase in pay.  I believe MPAS is likely in a similar position when it
comes to taking on the State of Michigan to comply with the law of equal
access to programs, services, and facilities by the blind and other persons
with disabilities.  MPAS likely believes, and rightly so, that to take on
the state to comply with accessibility law, MPAS would likely jepordize or
lose at least a portion of their operating budget funding.           

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe
harcz Comcast
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2013 3:00 PM
To: nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] mpas sues two nursing homes

I know how they feel.And note Mike Pemble cof BSBP fame came out of the LARA
oversight division which isn't fully accessible to this blind man having
several image based pdf files on its web site.

Joe Harcz

MPAS Sues Two Michigan Nursing Homes for Failing to Comply with Abuse and
Neglect Investigation
Image of Medical Records

Novi, Fenton facilities failed to disclose requested documents and
information

(LANSING)- Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, Inc. (MPAS) filed suit in
federal district court today against the owners and operators of Whitehall
Healthcare Center of Novi and Fenton Healthcare challenging their failure to
disclose documents and information related to the abuse and neglect of
patients
residing in their nursing home facilities.

The case of abuse and neglect being investigated at Whitehall Healthcare
Center of Novi stems from an incident in which staff did not provide
life-saving
measures to a resident who suffered a cardiac arrest despite having
documented authorization to do so. This lack of intervention violated the
patient's
plan of service as well as the policy of Whitehall itself. The patient
subsequently died. Similarly, Fenton Healthcare failed to immediately
initiate emergency
medical services leading to the death of one resident and a risk of serious
harm, injury or death for many others.

"The failure of these two facilities to provide our organization with the
needed documents has interfered with our investigative duties," said Mark
Cody,
Legal Director at MPAS. "Under federal law, MPAS acts to protect and
advocate for the rights of individuals with disabilities and our ability to
do that
is being hindered."

Both instances of potential abuse and neglect were brought to MPAS'
attention through surveys conducted by the Michigan Department of Licensing
and Regulatory
Affairs (LARA) Bureau of Health Care Services. MPAS opened an investigation
and sent letters requesting records to Whitehall and Fenton Healthcare.
Whitehall
replied two months later with a letter of denial while Fenton has yet to
acknowledge the records request for approximately three months. Letters to
legal
counsel for both facilities, indicating that a complaint would be filed if
they did not comply with MPAS' requests, were responded to with a brief
reiteration
of their denial.

"This lawsuit should not come as a surprise to the owners and operators of
these facilities," said Brad Dembs, MPAS attorney. "They were given ample
time
to respond to our requests and avoid this particular course of action. Two
people have died and many others were put in harm's way. It is our federal
responsibility
to investigate the causes of these incidents in order to prevent such tragic
outcomes in the future."

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