Reports to the Iowa Office of Ombudsman surged from Iowans over the last few months of the pandemic as state agencies took drastic measures attempting to control health and safety practices, Ombudsman Kristie Hirschman said in a statement this week. In fiscal year 2020, the ombudsman office received 5,665 complaints and information requests, the sixth year of increases. The office released two investigations in 2020 determining excessive workloads contributed to lapses by the Iowa Department of Human Services in the oversight of homes where two teenage girls starved to death. Staffing shortfalls throughout the government continue to put citizens at risk, Hirschman said.