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APD Safety Initiatives

Putting safety first

The Office of Aging and People with Disabilities (APD) prioritizes safety as essential to the well-being of the people we serve.

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Safety initiatives

APD is working on improvements to safety and regulatory oversight. These improvements are both short- and long-term. Three of our units are involved in this work:

  • Licensing and regulatory oversight
  • Adult Protective Services
  • Safety and Serious Incidents (includes emergency response)

Initiatives launched in 2024

Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) was hired to conduct an independent assessment of the licensing and regulatory unit that oversees long-term care providers.

​APD added a web page dedicated to licensing and regulatory updates​ for long-term care facilities and adult foster homes. The page:

  • Lists facilities with restrictions on new admissions due to compliance problems
  • Lists facilities requiring additional monitoring
  • Complements licensing and enforcement information available on the long-term care compliance website​.

APD’s executive leaders make unannounced in-person visits to long-term care providers. This allows them to see operations firsthand. These visits complement routine inspections, abuse and complaint investigations.

  • Visits are made to three to five licensed facilit​ies each month
  • Leaders speak with residents and staff
  • Visits are made to facilities with poor regulatory compliance records along with those providing quality service

APD is recruiting to fill new positions on the licensing inspection team.​

  • This team does surveys for community-based providers. This includes assisted living and residential care facilities.
  • The new positions will assess if a facility has enough staff to meet the needs of its current residents. A lack of qualified staff can lead to safety issues.
  • ​Positions include a compliance specialist and a supe​rvisory role​.

​APD leaders participate in a national learning collaborative with the Center for Health Care Strategies​. APD was accepted into the collaborative along with four other states. The collaborative:

  • Researches best practices for ownership transparency and financial reporting
  • Identifies policy and practice recommendations. This can help Oregon meet new federal regulati​ons and communicate with the public.

​APD leaders from all safety-related units now meet twice a week to review APD's response. They look at how APD handles serious incidents involving older adults and people with disabilities. This includes:

  • Any injury in a licensed setting - or involving a homecare worker that is paid with Medicaid funding - that results in hospitalization.
  • Suspicious deaths reported to APD that involve a person living in the community or a licensed care setting.
  • Alleged sexual abuse.
  • Elopements from a licensed memory care setting or if an individual's care plan required support when they left their home.

Leaders meet quarterly to review cases in which someone relying on a licensed setting or other formalized supports, dies due to an incident. They identify potential areas of improvement to prevent fatalities.​

​As part of the budgeting process for the next biennium, APD made a proposal to add resources to its licensing and regulatory oversight unit. The proposal, included in the Governor's Recommended Budget​, ​​calls for:

  • Nineteen​ more ​positions in APD's licensing and regulatory oversight unit - These positions can provide more oversight for newly licensed providers. This ensures residents' needs are met and required safety protocols are followed.
  • Resources to support prevention and identify a provider's licensing concerns earlier - Prevention gives APD's licensing team an opportunity to correct problems before they harm someone.