Burned group home had affiliates placed on probation for health and safety issues

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- The operators of a group home destroyed in a fatal fire recently were threatened with the loss of their state license to serve the mentally ill at two affiliated homes after inspectors raised serious concerns about the health and safety of their residents, The Associated Press has learned.

Inspectors cited repeated errors and confusion in providing medication to residents, poor hygiene, numerous communication lapses between administrators and staff and an exposed electrical wire hanging from a building, according to Department of Mental Health documents provided to The Associated Press under an open-records request.

To avoid closing a facility, Joplin River of Life Ministries Inc. entered into a consent agreement in September with the state allowing it to operate under probation until next April, so long as it proves the problems are being corrected.

The probation status applies to the Joplin Guest House III and Carl Junction Guest House.

Mental health records noted less serious patient care citations at the organization's Anderson Guest House, where an early Monday fire killed nine of the 32 residents and one of the two staff members on duty.

State investigators have ruled out arson while pointing to improper electrical wiring in the attic as a potential cause, though they have not officially determined what sparked the fire.

The problems at the Joplin and Carl Junction homes for the mentally ill and disabled were first noted during a March licensure review. They persisted during follow-up visits in May and June. And they worsened during an August follow up at the Joplin facility, leading to the threatened loss of state licensure for that facility.

The deficiencies at the Joplin home in particular "raise serious concerns about the health, safety and welfare of individuals residing at Guest House III," the Mental Health Department wrote in a Sept. 7 letter to Laverne Dupont, listed on other documents as the executive director of Joplin River of Life Ministries.

No one immediately returned a telephone message left Friday by the AP at Joplin River of Life Ministries.

Mental Health Department spokesman Bob Bax said Friday that agency inspectors were sent to all homes run by Joplin River of Life Ministries following the Anderson fire. A department briefing on the inspection results scheduled for Friday was postponed because of heavy snow across Missouri.

"The probation status requires more frequent monitoring," Bax said, and "if the homes cannot correct those deficiencies, they lose their license."

Another of the entity's facilities -- Joplin Guest House II -- closed in July 2004, nine months after state health department inspectors cited it for various violations, including failure to repair a malfunctioning fire alarm.

The exposed wiring cited this August at Joplin Guest House III was hanging above an exhaust fan that was not working. Staff told mental health inspectors the wire was not hot, but inspectors noted it needed to be removed.

The most pressing problem cited at the Joplin and Carl Junction facilities was the staff's failure to give residents their medication or to properly document whether they had done so.

In one case, investigators noted that a patient's chart said the required dose of a cholesterol drug was not given because the medication was missing. They determined the medication had been taken to an administration office, but the house staff apparently never realized that nor requested it for the resident, the investigative report said.

In another case, a resident was observed taking medication unsupervised while on the front steps of the Joplin home. That resident told investigators he had been threatened with being sent elsewhere if he didn't use the sole physician chosen by the home's directors.

Laverne Dupont's husband, Robert Dupont, was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud in 2003 for his part in a scheme to bilk the federal Medicare program by steering patients from group homes he owned -- including the one in Anderson -- to hand-picked doctors. Those doctors, in exchange, falsely certified that the patients needed home health services from two companies Dupont owned or co-owned, according to federal records.

Dupont was sentenced to 21 months at the Leavenworth federal prison in Kansas, followed by three years of supervised release. Earlier this year, a federal judge rejected Dupont's efforts to persuade the court to vacate that conviction.