SPANISH FORK, Utah — Utah officials say a residential support home for people with disabilities required its staff to get management approval before calling 911 — a policy that licensors say delayed emergency help last month for a resident who later died.
State licensors are now keeping a closer watch on North Eastern Services’ Spanish Fork home. The program is not allowed to accept new clients for 30 days after the state took emergency agency action last week. Their staff must also be retrained on “safe practices regarding supervision of clients and emergency protocol procedures,” according to the July 20 notice.
The action does not affect other locations of North Eastern Services, which, according to their website, provides services to support those with disabilities live independently through home supports, job placements and day programs.
On June 13 at about 2 a.m., a client at the program’s Spanish Fork home was in respiratory distress, according to a notice of emergency agency action, “with difficulty breathing and nasal discharge.” Staff did not immediately contact emergency services, licensors found, saying that internal protocols mandated a manager’s approval prior to calling 911.
Instead, staff waited 20 minutes to call a manager, who then instructed them to “document the client’s condition via video for management to see,” according to the notice. That manager directed staff to wait for an assistant manager to transport the client for medical care.
Staff then did call 911 — at 3:19 a.m. — and the paramedics who arrived began trying to resuscitate the resident. The person later died at a hospital, according to licensors.
