Statement from Minnesota health department about methadone clinic

Jerry Kerber, Minnesota Department of Human Services inspector general, made this statement last week in response to reading the accreditation report by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities:

“The evaluation of the program services by the CARF organization appears to reach some different conclusions about the acceptability of care provided by this organization. While there are many recommendations for improvements in the report, there are some ‘strengths’ listed that are completely inconsistent with the findings of the Department of Human Services.

“Specifically, CARF’s two findings that: ‘Corporate leadership has made significant efforts to integrate various policy and procedure changes dictated by state regulators and Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) so as to fully implement CARF standards;’ and ‘The director of accreditation and corporate compliance has developed and implemented a comprehensive performance analysis and improvement process to address the concerns of the Minnesota Department of Human Services’ licensing division’ are not supported by the ongoing findings of the department’s regulatory oversight.

“The nature, severity, and chronicity of this program’s violations of licensing standards has provided the department with sufficient documentary evidence to support the revocation of this license, and this evidence will be presented at the appeal hearing requested by the license holder to challenge the Order of Revocation.”

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