Puerto Rico Health Department Secretary Víctor Ramos Otero said on Tuesday, October 20, that he ordered nighttime inspections resumed at homes serving people with intellectual disabilities, while the investigation continues into a center in Isabela from which all patients were removed. At a press conference, Ramos Otero said the nighttime visits had at some point stopped being carried out, but that every home is visited weekly by Health Department monitors assigned to the program.
He said the department keeps about 90 homes in the intellectual disability program after the Isabela intervention. Each facility receives at least one visit a week, and operators do not know which day the monitor will arrive. On the Isabela center, Ramos Otero said all patients were relocated and their relatives were notified the same day of the transfer.
Four relatives took part in a meeting on Monday related to the process. He said the investigation will continue after interviews with all employees, about 15, plus the owners of the institution, to determine whether a referral will be made to another institution and whether the contract with that home will continue. He explained that no patients remain at the facility and that the pending decisions are whether the case will be referred to another agency and whether Health will keep its contractual relationship with the home.