HELENA, Mont. (AP) - Federal inspectors found safety issues at Montana State Hospital, including staffing shortages they say put patients at risk of injury by other patients or themselves.
The state-run psychiatric hospital at Warm Springs nearly lost its agreement with the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid because its noncompliance with federal regulations was considered serious enough to risk death or serious injury to a resident, Lee Newspapers of Montana reported.
Surveyors in January said “chronic, pervasive staff shortages” led to some of the hospital’s most dangerous patients being in the vicinity of people with developmental disabilities without adequate supervision, leading to assaults on some of the vulnerable patients.
The report shows at least four instances of Intensive Treatment Unit patients assaulting patients on another unit between October and January. One patient was struck in the back of the head and another was punched.
When supervisors visited in January they found no psychiatric technicians - employees whose job it is to supervise patients - available to supervise five patients in the Intensive Treatment Unit and 21 patients in another unit.
Inspectors also found the hospital did not eliminate risks for suicidal patients, such as leaving out towels that could be used as ligatures. Other hazards included mirrors that could be broken, along with coat hooks, door knobs and other anchor points that patients could use to hang themselves.
Some of those issues have been addressed and patients are being monitored more closely until the rest of the work can be completed, officials said.
Since the inspection, the state has hired two full-time registered nurses and eight traveling agency nurses and has authorized overtime pay to improve staffing levels.
The hospital has hired 24 psych techs since January, said Jon Ebelt, spokesman for the Department of Public Health and Human Services.
The hospital - which averaged about 245 patients last year - has 36 full-time registered nurses, two on-call nurses, 29 nurses from traveling agencies and 29 licensed practical nurses, Ebelt said.
The hospital shut down the Intensive Treatment Unit after the inspection and moved its four patients to other parts of the hospital, officials said.
The health department is working to identify ways to recruit and retain employees at the hospital northeast of Anaconda.
The Montana State Hospital received about $5.8 million in reimbursement from Medicare and $541,000 from Medicaid, or about 15 percent of its $40 million budget during fiscal year 2016.
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