On April 8, Disability Rights Louisiana (DRLA) sent a request to the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) for information regarding the scope of COVID-19 infections at all Intermediate Care Facilities for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (ICF-DD), along with the provision of protections for, and treatment available to individuals with disabilities who reside in these facilities.
The State of Louisiana has over 500 privately owned ICF-DD facilities, housing over 4,000 individuals with developmental disabilities. These facilities range from smaller 4-bed group homes to larger facilities housing over 100 individuals.
The letter is addressed to Interim Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, Stephen Russo, and invokes DRLA’s authority as a Protection and Advocacy agency (P&A) “to pursue legal, administrative and other remedies to ensure the protection of individuals with disabilities who are receiving care or treatment in Louisiana” by utilizing, “broad access rights to facilities and to facility records for the purpose of investigating allegations of abuse and neglect, monitoring facility conditions, and providing protection and advocacy services to individuals with disabilities.” (42 U.S.C. §15043).
DRLA’s request for information includes:
- The total number of private ICF-DD facilities in Louisiana as of April 6, 2020.
- A breakdown of the total numbers of residents and employees at each ICF-DD, including numbers of diagnosed, designated, tested, hospitalized, and deaths resulting from COVID-19.
- Information about clusters (two or more COVID-19 cases that appear to be connected) in each facility and region.
- Updates on the above-mentioned numbers to be reported by LDH every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday throughout the duration of the Governor’s Declaration of Emergency.
- Any correspondence between LDH (including Health Standard and Office of Public Health) and private ICF-DDs that concern or relate to the provision of care, treatment, and the protection of persons with developmental disabilities in private ICF’s.
- Any complaints filed with Health Standards regarding the failure to protect or provide adequate services to a person with a Developmental Disability in a private ICF/DD since March 13, 2020.
DRLA alerts LDH that, “Our agency has received reports sufficient to trigger our authority under the Developmental Disabilities (DD) Act to initiate an investigation. Those reports indicate that individuals with developmental disabilities who reside in private ICF-DD facilities across the state are not being adequately protected from or receiving treatment for COVID-19 are at serious risk to their health and safety.”
“We are confident that the State of Louisiana cares deeply about the health and wellbeing of individuals with developmental disabilities. We extend this opportunity to the State in effort to help them increase their degree of transparency regarding vulnerable populations during this time of crisis.” says Christopher Rodriguez, Executive Director of Disability Rights Louisiana. Mr. Rodriguez continues “it is our expectation that this data will be provided to DRLA no later than COB Friday, April 10th. At that time we will begin to have a better understanding of the scope of this issue as it relates to these facilities.”
For more information, please contact DRLA’s Executive Director, Christopher Rodriguez at 800-960-7705, or crodriguez@disabilityrightsla.org.
For more general information about our agency, please visit our website: disabilityrightsla.org.
