Mirror readers, as well as other Pennsylvania residents who have access to reporting by the news organization Spotlight PA, were recipients of an extremely troubling report last weekend about lagging senior abuse investigations in this state.

“Unconscionable” is too mild of a description for what Spotlight uncovered in its examination and analysis of official records it was able to obtain.

What last weekend’s report revealed clearly is that more specifics need to be known about the problem, what is being done to correct the deficiencies that continue to exist, plus the need to open an era of wide-open transparency that heretofore apparently has been non-existent.

Wide-open transparency regarding what the public needs to know can become reality without revealing specific patient-condition information that must remain private under federal medical privacy regulations.

Some of the abuse problem might exist because of a penchant for non-disclosure of reportable information hidden under the false notion — the abominable excuse — that revealing such information would violate federal rules.

How much agencies responsible for protecting the elderly in this part of the state might be contributing in a significant way to the problem Spotlight’s report revealed needs to emerge from the proverbial darkness, and a Blair County state legislator is actively seeking reform and transparency.

That lawmaker, state Rep. Lou Schmitt, has introduced legislation that would require the Pennsylvania Department of Aging to publish the compliance status of each of the 52 county agencies responsible for protective services for older adults. Together, the agencies in question provide coverage for all of the state’s 67 counties.

According to what Spotlight has described as “data obtained from a wide-ranging public records request” that it analyzed, certain county protective services agencies have taken five or more times the mandated 20 days for determinations in abuse and neglect investigations.

“The deficiencies have persisted despite a 2018 report by the state inspector general’s office recommending the Department of Aging, which oversees those county agencies, develop procedures to improve timeliness in completing abuse and neglect investigations,” Spotlight said.

Meanwhile, Spotlight reported, “there has been a staggering increase in the number of older Pennsylvanians who died during an open investigation of an abuse or neglect complaint … in 2018, 888 people died under these circumstances. In 2022 (the last complete year of data), that number was nearly 1,700 — a 91% increase.”

Then there is this troubling information:

Because the Department of Aging does not track the cause of death for people who die during open investigations and county agencies aren’t required to report it, accountability is near impossible. Many people would categorize that as incomprehensible.

In last weekend’s Spotlight article, Pennsylvania Secretary of Aging Jason Kavulich is quoted as saying that he told county agencies shortly after taking over the department that he intended to make more information about their performance public, and that the office is actively working on a plan to do that.

All considered, completing and implementing such a plan is long overdue.