Man accused of torture killing escapes psychiatric hospital
Posted: Apr 07, 2016 8:35 AM CDT
Updated: Apr 07, 2016 5:26 PM CDT
By MARTHA BELLISLE
Associated Press
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The escape is the latest in a litany of problems at the 800-bed hospital south of Tacoma, where violent assaults on both staff and patients have occurred.
U.S. regulators have repeatedly cited the facility over safety concerns and threatened to cut millions in federal funding. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently extended the hospital's deadline for fixing the problems from April 1 to May 3. A federal judge also has said the hospital has failed to provide timely competency services to mentally ill people charged with crimes.
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Patients in the hospital's lower-security unit are checked every hour, Reyes said. Garver and Adams were not placed in the high-security unit because a judge granted a state request to hold them as a danger to themselves or others after treatment failed to restore their ability to understand the criminal charges against them.
Officials are conducting a safety review of the hospital and will bring in outside experts to help, Reyes said. "We can never have too many fresh eyes reviewing a situation as serious as this," Reyes said in a statement. "As always, safety - for the public, staff and other patients - remains a priority."
Nursing Supervisor Paul Vilja said he was amazed to hear that the men who escaped were assigned to a unit with hourly checks, because some of the more-dangerous patients are in units with checks every 15 minutes.
Vilja and other hospital workers objected when the hospital first required the 15-minute checks two years ago because they said staffing levels were not adequate to handle the extra duties. Workers were required to fill out forms for each 15-minute check but often fell behind, so not all of them were done, Vilja said.
The state has tried to fix some of the problems by increasing funding so more staff could be hired. But the hospital has struggled with recruiting and retaining workers.
The state has a history of underfunding its mental health programs, including its facilities, said Lauren Simonds, executive director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Washington. She said she hopes funding added during the recent legislative session will help move the state from being ranked lowest in the nation.
Despite increased federal scrutiny of the hospital, assaults have persisted, according to records obtained by The Associated Press.
A patient with a history of violent behavior choked and punched a mental health technician on March 26, according to an internal report. Another report on March 23 said a male patient slipped out of his monitors and was found in a bathroom with another male patient, who said he was sexually assaulted.
Injured employees missed 41,301 days of work between 2010 and 2014 and on-the-job injuries forced staff to move to other jobs, like desk work, for 7,760 days during that period, according to state Occupational Safety and Health Administration records.
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http://www.9and10news.com/story/31666065/1-of-2-men-who-fled-washington-psychiatric-facility-caught
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