Behind tall brick walls and secure windows, hundreds of patients at
Washington state's largest psychiatric hospital live in conditions that
fail US health and safety standards, while overworked nurses and
psychiatrists say they are navigating a system that punishes employees
who speak out despite critical staffing shortages.
"They don't have enough staff to protect patients, or provide them with
the bare minimum of care," said Lisa Bowser, whose mother spent two
years at Western State Hospital and suffered dozens of falls and
assaults.
"Going there was like going into hell," said Bowser, who has sued the
state-run facility. "I honestly thought they would kill her before I
could get her out."
US and state regulators for years have found health and safety
violations at the 800-bed hospital, ranging from assaults on staff to
escapes of dangerous patients, including a man accused of torturing a
woman to death. Even after that 2016 escape, a nursing supervisor told
The Associated Press that a patient who had been charged with murder and
found not guilty by reason of insanity was placed in a less secure ward
and the nurse faced retaliation after reporting the danger to
non-violent patients.
Despite a shakeup in leadership and vows to correct problems, the
hospital continually puts patients at risk, according to a surprise
federal inspection . Some didn't get oxygen and blood-sugar checks;
injuries weren't properly treated; they were held in restraints too
long; and the building remained a fire hazard. Some violations were
cited in inspections going back to 2015.
After years of chances, the US Centres for Medicare and Medicaid
Services last week stripped the hospital in Lakewood of its
certification and federal funding, totalling $53 million a year and
about 20 percent of its budget.
Gov. Jay Inslee said he wants the state to change the way it handles the
mentally ill with a system that allows some patients to live in smaller
facilities but that it's making inroads.
"We have been on a course correction to turn this ship around and we are
continuing on that course of improvement," the Democrat told AP.
Bowser's mother, Sharon Struthers, was committed to the hospital for
depression in 2014 and stayed through 2015. Bowser said she began to see
bruising on her mother's body and found fungus covering her feet.
"They wouldn't bathe her," Bowser said. "She would tell me that another patient hit her."
Bowser said her mother's room was covered with garbage, and she began to
suffer falls that broke her arm and hip. Her mother also was sexually
assaulted on several occasions, Bowser said.
Staff thought a registered sex offender placed on Struthers' ward was
safe around older patients because he was a "child molester, not adult
rapist," according to an email that licensed mental health counsellor
Mark Allen sent to hospital officials and was acquired by Bowser's
lawyer.
Allen said the encounter appeared to be between two consenting adults.
The problem is Struthers was committed to the hospital because she could
not take care of herself, said Bowser's lawyer, James Beck.
Struthers died at a different facility in 2016. Bowser sued Western
State Hospital and the state Department of Social and Health Services,
which oversees the facility, claiming abuse and neglect.
The agency declined to comment on the allegations, referring questions
to the state attorney general's office, which didn't respond to multiple
emails and calls.
Kelly Stowe, a DSHS spokeswoman, said the agency is working with the
governor's office on funding options after the recent inspection cost
the hospital federal dollars.
Employees say management punishes those who challenge decisions.
Nursing supervisor Paul Vilja filed a complaint last December after a
man who was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the deaths of
multiple people was moved from a secure ward into one with limited
security.
"I said you are endangering my patients and he's a risk for escape," Vilja told the AP.
The health department agreed with Vilja's concerns, but he was moved to
the medical records department within a week. He couldn't work with
patients for six months but was recently told he can move back to the
ward. Vilja has filed a whistleblower complaint.
Psychiatrists said they faced similar treatment.
Three said they were reprimanded for objecting to management decisions
that put patients and staff at risk. Two were fired, and the other was
removed from patient care.
Dr Michael Quayle sued the hospital claiming he faced a hostile work
environment after reporting expired and improperly stored meat. A jury
awarded him about US$550,000 in December 2016.
Dr Joseph Wainer wrote an editorial in a local newspaper and statement
for a court claiming "a systemic culture of retaliation, discrimination
and bullying." He was put under investigation and told to leave the
hospital.
Dr Jay Jawad said he objected to a management decision to discharge his
patients and faced investigation and loss of his clinical
responsibilities.
Wainer and Jawad were later told that the investigations were closed
with no findings. They have sued the hospital and the health department
claiming retaliation.
The facility has lost 15 psychiatrists in three years with no new hires,
according to a hospital worker who didn't want to be named for fear of
being fired. And instead of nurses, the institution hired "nurse
educators" who don't see patients, the worker said.
Lawmakers have pressed the hospital to create a staffing model that will
allow adequate funding for nurses, but the facility keeps asking for
overtime funds that are "unaccountable," state Rep. Laurie Jinkins said.
https://www.geezgo.com/sps/29583
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