WORCESTER, Mass. - A new report released Wednesday details harmful issues related to patient care at the Bear Mountain at Worcester nursing facility.
The report, done by the Disability Law Center, found problems at the facility include under-staffing, over-medication and neglect. The report is the result of a two-year investigation into complaints originating from patients and their families.
DLC is a private nonprofit responsible for providing protection and advocacy for the rights of Massachusetts residents with disabilities.
"We don’t understand why or how it could be okay to run a unit for a complex specialized population with neurobehavioral issues, psychiatric issues and not have staff that are credentialed in psychiatric nursing and neurology and psychology and behavior management,” said Rick Glassman, director of advocacy for the Disability Law Center. “We don’t understand why or how the state can pay enhanced rates to a facility for serving such a specialized population without conditioning that money on having that staff."
Bear Mountain said many of the claims in the report are based on over-generalizations and inferences collected from outdated data and reports unrelated to Bear Mountain at Worcester. They said they’ll take the report seriously and will consider it in their ongoing efforts to improve the quality of care delivered to residents.