Chair asks CHS about discipline for refusing DOI cooperation
Brooks-Powers asks whether CHS disciplined employees for refusing to cooperate with the DOI investigation into deadlocking. Otonichar says he is not aware of any such discipline and will follow up, but says clinicians are expected to report barriers to patient access to supervisors.
Um,
Did CHS discipline employees for refusing to cooperate with the Department of Investigations investigation?
I'm not aware of that.
I would need to follow up with you.
Sorry, can you repeat that?
Sorry, the question was whether we discipline staff related to deadlocking?
Yes, so I believe that DOI's investigation found that there was deadlocking done by CHS employees, that they were aware of it, excuse me.
Okay, so I can't speak to...
Any particular disciplinary actions, but I will say for the service, we did reinforce with staff that at any time one of our clinicians encounters a barrier to accessing a patient to
provide care, they are expected to report that to their supervisor.
Generally, that's dealt with on the local facility level in partnership with DOC, and then we can always escalate as needed for persistent or systemic issues.