Florida Health Administrator Denies Kids are Dumped in Nursing Homes

TALLAHASSEE — Florida's top health administrator told lawmakers at a Senate committee meeting Wednesday that she was "enraged" by "sensational" reports that her agency was funneling sick and disabled children into nursing homes designed for adults.

"We do not place our medically complex or medically fragile children in nursing homes," Liz Dudek, secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, told members of the Senate Health Policy Committee, adding that parents are given the choice of where their children live and receive care. "The last place we want children is away from their parents."

Federal civil rights administrators see it differently.