Whistleblowing and Coverups

By Annie Butzner

North Carolina suffers under an “Anti-Sunshine” law designed to prevent whistleblowing, not just in pig farms and food processing plants but also in nursing homes and adult-care facilities.

Why? Apparently the legislature wants to protect and maintain the state’s purposely weak governance of these long-term facilities, allowing unscrupulous providers to exploit every opportunity for profit.

Many seniors and disabled residents of healthcare facilities are effectively captives of the homes they live in. “Concerned family members” are nonexistent, uninterested, or simply “too busy” to care what happens to them. In many cases, they are left to the “good will” of predatory corporations who see them simply as channels for profit. Without advocates dedicated to their well-being rather than the corporate bottom line, they are easily exploited and denied the freedoms the rest of us take for granted.

That’s why whistleblowers are needed to report abusive practices. Stories are rife of crimes against individuals—abuse, neglect, theft—and against society—Medicare fraud, Medicaid abuse, overbilling for drugs and meals, etc.

My own experiences are not unusual. I have worked in long-term care facilities as a nurse, and I have been fired for reporting abuse. For example, in one facility I discovered that medicines had been fraudulently signed out but never administered: drugs were either never delivered to the facility or not given to residents. Because I reported through professional channels, I was fired … and residents suffered. (If I had reported to the media, they might have been protected.)

I now visit these types of facilities to register residents to vote, so I hear the inmates’ stories. Recently, I listened to residents who do not want absentee ballots mailed to their facility’s Post Office box; they say they have been sent money but never received it, and that they have received mail that has already been opened. Residents have complained to me of being hungry, and tell me they have had to ask physicians to order double portions for them so they can get enough to eat.

I personally overheard staff using demeaning, mean language with a resident whose skin was not white. One facility administrator refused to allow voter registration.

So what happens when these things happen? Crimes against the elderly are officially labeled “elder abuse,” but are not criminally investigated: they’re sidelined to the Department of Social Services, an overloaded agency with 60 days to start an investigation. On the rare occasions when facilities are found at fault and fined, often the amount of the fine is later reduced, either by administrators or the courts, as a result of corporate lobbyists’ influence.

Our state’s already weak Healthcare Facility Rules are reviewed every 10 years. Problems are addressed only if complaints exist. Complaining requires navigating a confusing process that limits even the protective agencies’ ability to take action. Staffing rules—already lax—are easily circumvented, so that low-paid caregivers can be required to deliver inadequate care (abuse). Residents sit in wheelchairs because there is not enough staff. Lack of protective equipment and training cause injuries to residents and staff alike.

Worse, one can see the state’s cuts to Medicaid in residents suffering without glasses, hearing aids, or teeth, while trapped in a wheelchairs or confined to bed.

There is a word for the act of restraining the personal liberty of an individual: imprisonment. One of the only protections these people have is whistleblowing by workers and others who see abuse and care about it.

I call on all those who work in or visit long-term care and residential nursing facilities—especially those who undertake the mission of helping residents register and vote, as is their guaranteed right under the U.S. Constitution and NC law, to stop and look around as you go about your work. If you see something going on that should not be, be a whistleblower. Protecting others’ rights protects all our rights.

Annie Butzner is a retired nurse and current voting rights activist. She can be contacted at [email protected].