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We believe organizations -- public or private -- are best equipped to reach the best decisions with more information, not less. With that in mind, we find the Shapiro administration's decision to end the collection of data regarding why elderly Pennsylvanians whose care is under active investigation due to allegations of abuse or neglect have died perplexing.
The process, which, according to a Spotlight PA report in Thursday's edition of the Sun-Gazette, began under Gov. Josh Shapiro's predecessor, Gov. Tom Wolf. It documented each death and cross-referenced information with other records to try to provide the state with the fullest picture possible.
"It's an important quality assurance measure," Bill Benson, a consultant on adult protective services policies, told Spotlight PA. "Somebody dies on your watch … you ask, 'Why did this person die? And was there something that we didn't do?'"
Between efforts to obscure a case of sexual harassment in his own cabinet and his aversion to disclosing details about accepting gifts from organizations that receive public money -- two issues we have editorialized about in the past -- we have unfortunately become used to Shapiro's allergies to public accountability.
This seems to go beyond that -- withholding important information not from taxpayers but from civil servants examining why the deaths of our elderly neighbors, friends and family may be occurring.
If Shapiro and his advisers do not see the error in this decision and reverse course in the time left in his first term, we certainly hope voters will consider whether the state's taxpayers and civil servants need to spend another term in needless dark.