43
Trumbull SCOPE plans merger with Portage agency
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
A Trumbull County agency in trouble with the state for not completing criminal background checks on employees plans to merge with a comparable service provider in Portage County.
Ralph Smith, project manager at SCOPE Inc., said Family and Community Services Inc. in Ravenna will provide needed human-resources administration. That’s something the Warren-area nonprofit has not had adequate financial resources to cover on its own, he said.
“We’re looking at a merger hopefully within 60 to 90 days, and we’ve met with them several times,” Smith said. “They’ll be able to supply that for us.”
Smith commented on the plan during an administrative hearing Tuesday near the Statehouse, where legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Aging urged a complete revocation of the certification needed to receive Medicaid-related funding.
A hearing officer is considering the matter and will offer a recommendation on a penalty. The state agency’s director will have final say on the resulting sanction.
SCOPE operates a half dozen senior centers and an adult day care in Trumbull County. Earlier this year, it was cited for failing to conduct background checks on dozens of employees, waiting years in some cases instead of days as required by law.
SCOPE also was cited for failing to check the credentials of one worker who has since been indicted on allegations of practicing nursing without a license and employing a couple of others convicted of offenses that disqualify them from employment.
The situation prompted the state to pull funding for SCOPE’s in-home programming and the longtime director of the agency to step down from the position.
The Trumbull County commissioners late last month awarded more than $430,000 for SCOPE’s senior centers, but the agency is no longer offering lawn mowing, snow shoveling and other in-home services.
Smith, who has headed the nonprofit since late April, attributed the problems to a “lack of diversification of authority,” without adequate attention to human resources or compliance issues. He painted a picture Tuesday of an office that grew too quickly and a staff that became overwhelmed by the resulting regulations.
“The first thing I found when I came in was a lack of diversification of authority,” Smith said. “Everything flowed to my desk — mine — which for the first two days [on the job] kept me completely pinned to it. ... It was just a huge amount of material that we were attempting to pass through one office.”
Smith said he has since reorganized SCOPE and is working on training efforts to ensure future compliance.
But the agency’s work force is down by more than half since its funding cut, with about 50 employees currently on the payroll. The merger with Family and Community Services of Portage County will allow SCOPE to continue its services in Trumbull County with necessary human resources and other administrative support, he said.
But legal counsel for the Ohio Department of Aging recommended revocation of SCOPE’s certification, saying the issues at the agency are long-standing and merit serious consequences.
“This goes back to the year 2004 just for the items we cited,” said Sally Ann Steuk, representing the department. “We have no verification of what changes have been made to rectify this issue. ... At the time the investigation was done, they were in violation of all the things that are specified in the amended citation.”
She added later, “I don’t think there’s any sanction appropriate except decertification.”
But Tom Carey, representing SCOPE, said the violations all dealt with administrative shortcomings.
“Fortunately ... the allegations do not have anything to do with actual harm to the patients,” he said. “There is no allegation of financial losses to the agency or to the patients. ... I think it would be important for the hearing officer to take into account the significant impact [of the] services that SCOPE performs in Trumbull County. ... There’s help provided to people, to working families, to take care of elderly or disabled people when the family just isn’t able to do that and they’re not in a nursing home setting.”
“What’s past is past, but nobody was hurt, and nobody intended for anybody to be hurt or anybody to lose anything,” Smith told reporters later. “And it’s really unfortunate that it unwound this way.”