Concerns At Beatrice State Developmental Center

An attorney for Nebraska Advocacy Services says the state needs to act immediately to address concerns stemming from three recent deaths at the Beatrice State Developmental Center.

The group, which advocates for the developmentally disabled, sent a letter on Thursday to Gov. Dave Heineman and other state leaders raising questions about the care at the troubled state-run center.

Bruce Mason, litigation director for Nebraska Advocacy Services, said Saturday that there were three deaths in three weeks on the same floor of the center, which is home to about 240 developmentally disabled people, most of them mentally retarded.

Heineman spokeswoman Jen Rae Hein said Saturday that the governor had reviewed the letter and was talking with state health officials about what action to take.

Mason said his group is recommending, among other things, that the state make arrangements with Omaha hospitals and medical providers to have Beatrice patients sent or treated there. He said he doesn't want the state “to ship them off to nursing homes and forgetting about them – that's a Pontius Pilate response.”

The Beatrice center has been under scrutiny since a U.S. Justice Department investigation reported about 200 cases of alleged neglect and abuse there since late 2006. It concluded that the center had a “cultural undercurrent that betrays human decency at the most fundamental levels.”

The state is trying to hang onto $29 million in federal funding for the center.

The dollars continue to roll in only because the state appealed the federal decision to decertify the center and yank its federal funding. A ruling on the appeal is expected this summer.

Heineman wants to spend $17 million more on the center over the next three years to help correct problems and put it back in the good graces of federal officials. He has said the money will help the state pursue a plan to help the center retain federal funding.

State officials have not ruled out shutting down the center if it loses its fight to keep federal certification. A state decision is expected later this