ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota’s Department of Health commissioner is resigning.
Gov. Mark Dayton’s office announced Tuesday that Commissioner Ed Ehlinger would step down. Ehlinger had been head of the state’s health oversight board since 2011.
The announcement didn’t specify why Ehlinger was resigning but it follows reporting by the Star Tribune on serious oversight lapses of the state’s senior care facilities.
The newspaper previously documented that hundreds of seniors were beaten, sexually assaulted or robbed at Minnesota facilities each year. And it reported that the agency struggled with a backlog of senior maltreatment complaints.
Dayton’s statement on Ehlinger’s resignation says his administration is working to improve the Department of Health’s oversight. Deputy Commissioner Dan Pollock will serve as acting commissioner on an interim basis.
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