State agencies tasked with regulating long-term care facilities that are supposed to provide for some of Utah’s most vulnerable patients are failing, a new report from the Disability Law Center argues.
Residents have died as regulators seem “reluctant” to shut down problematic facilities, according to a report from the Disability Law Center.
“However, closing Evergreen in the wake of deplorable conditions was not the end of the story for its residents,” according to theThe report focused on 48-year-old Chien Nguyen, who lived at the Midvale facility for a year before it was shut down and later died by suicide at Hidden Hollow Care Center, the Orem facility he subsequently was moved to.
The Utah Department of Health and Human Services houses the state’s Division of Licensing and Background Checks, the state agency that inspects and surveys long-term care facilities. The department released a statement Monday afternoon that said while DHHS officials were still reviewing the report, “our hearts go out to those mentioned ... who lost a loved on in one of Utah’s long-term care facilities.
Nguyen, an immigrant who primarily spoke Vietnamese, had a “long history of mental health disabilities,” according to the report. He had previously been institutionalized at the Utah State Hospital and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. He also experienced consistent suicidal ideation.
While the three others were “quickly discharged” because they didn’t have a qualifying disability, Chien Nguyen remained These psychiatric symptoms culminated in two suicide attempts, the report states. On April 10, 2022, he ran out of the care center and laid on a busy road. An employee at the facility pulled him back inside, but no one notified management or incoming night shift staff about the attempt. Thus, there were no additional precautions put into place to monitor Nguyen, the report states. Nyguyen’s brother visited that night and was also not informed of the suicide attempt.
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