Health Care Agency to Study Orangewood

The county Health Care Agency vowed Thursday to investigate and prepare a formal response to a highly critical Juvenile Justice Commission report that raised doubts about the way its doctors medicated young patients at the Orangewood Children’s Home.

Ronald DiLuigi, assistant director of the agency, said the response will review the finding and recommendations in the commission report and should be sent to county supervisors and other interested parties by the end of the month.

The commission report found that county psychiatrists at the Orangewood Children’s Home jeopardized the health of patients by prescribing powerful drugs without first recording diagnoses, failing to keep accurate charts of some patients and changing drugs with great frequency.

It also faulted the health agency for not sufficiently investigating the allegations when they were first made three years ago.

DiLuigi and other health administrators said that some of the commission’s recommendations related to drugs and record keeping have already been suggested by previous internal audits and were either implemented or rejected by the agency.

“Some of this we have looked at a number of times,” said Timothy P. Mullins, the county’s mental health director. “But I don’t pretend that any organization runs at 100% correctness. When someone gives us observations of what we are doing, I take them as legitimate observations. I may disagree with some things, but I have to look at what they are saying.”

The agency’s response will be prepared by officials in the central administrative section and not the Children & Youth Mental Health division, which oversaw the questionable practices at Orangewood.