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lauerzHARRISON — Some workers at St. Vincent's Hospital Westchester say low staffing and lax security have created unsafe work conditions, including a recent string of brutal assaults on nurses at the psychiatric facility.
The injuries include a broken arm, black eye, herniated disc, a concussion and a split lip. The hospital is unprepared to care for the increased number of violent patients, union representatives said.
"We're always, always understaffed," said Mike Gurry, a St. Vincent's nurse and union rep. "There are people out all the time because of assaults."
Gurry has worked at the hospital for 16 years and is a former New York City firefighter. He and others say there have been as many as 15 serious assaults in the past year.
Hospital officials, however, say one patient created much of the violence, which happened in October, and that the patient has since been stabilized.
Some staffers contend the problem goes beyond one bad month.
Many of the assaults were improperly documented and procedures weren't followed during internal hospital investigations, nurses say.
"They (hospital directors) were calling cabs to bring us to the nearest hospital," said Regina Peniowich, 50, of Mahopac, who was one of two nurses assaulted Oct. 18. She was working the night shift when a very ill patient attacked her with a chair, forcing her to the ground.
"I had to call 911 myself," Peniowich said.
Hospital administrators say the patient didn't have a violent history, but Peniowich said police told her otherwise. The patient's identity isn't available because of health privacy laws. Peniowich said she later found out that the patient had attacked a staff member in another unit.
"The police should've been called every time, but they weren't," said Christine LaPerche of the New York State Nurses Association. LaPerche does not work at St. Vincent's but represents nurses from that hospital and from others in the region.
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http://www.lohud.com/article/2009912210341
The injuries include a broken arm, black eye, herniated disc, a concussion and a split lip. The hospital is unprepared to care for the increased number of violent patients, union representatives said.
"We're always, always understaffed," said Mike Gurry, a St. Vincent's nurse and union rep. "There are people out all the time because of assaults."
Gurry has worked at the hospital for 16 years and is a former New York City firefighter. He and others say there have been as many as 15 serious assaults in the past year.
Hospital officials, however, say one patient created much of the violence, which happened in October, and that the patient has since been stabilized.
Some staffers contend the problem goes beyond one bad month.
Many of the assaults were improperly documented and procedures weren't followed during internal hospital investigations, nurses say.
"They (hospital directors) were calling cabs to bring us to the nearest hospital," said Regina Peniowich, 50, of Mahopac, who was one of two nurses assaulted Oct. 18. She was working the night shift when a very ill patient attacked her with a chair, forcing her to the ground.
"I had to call 911 myself," Peniowich said.
Hospital administrators say the patient didn't have a violent history, but Peniowich said police told her otherwise. The patient's identity isn't available because of health privacy laws. Peniowich said she later found out that the patient had attacked a staff member in another unit.
"The police should've been called every time, but they weren't," said Christine LaPerche of the New York State Nurses Association. LaPerche does not work at St. Vincent's but represents nurses from that hospital and from others in the region.
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http://www.lohud.com/article/2009912210341
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А вот комментарии метсных жителей
Date: 2009-12-21 10:23 pm (UTC)*
The previous opinions are valid, but I have a quesiton. If mental patients, who are non-compliant with their meds and become dangerous. where will they be housed? And WHO will be
the staff members who take care of them? Regardless of all things, workers in the health care field always need to be safe and protected in an unpredicatable working enviroment. What is the union doing with all rhe "unsafe working conditions" documentation that the staff fill out while they continue to accept assignments? Are they piling them up for...? What action is being taken by the union? When two mental patients go at each other, and one dies, then there will be a big broohah. But if a nurse gets assaulted, thats just SOP? Absolutely unacceptable.
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When the State changed its rules and regulations opening the doors to "mental institutions" it allowed far too many truly dangerously insane people to rejoin society. Many of us see some of them on a regular basis. The rules need to be reworked and those who are off their meds or otherwise a danger to others and themselves need to be confined.
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It would seem that staff that is used to the type of irrational, violent, aand dangeorus beahvior by these poulation of patients would not be filing these types of complaints against lax administration unless they were totally justified. The "all is well" statements from the top bosses are not reassuring.
вторая часть заметки
Date: 2009-12-21 10:25 pm (UTC)In the past year, nurses at St. Vincent's filed 31 "protest of assignment" forms, which the union asks its members to do when they feel unsafe, LaPerche said.
St. Vincent's Westchester is a 133-bed psychiatric treatment and substance abuse hospital. The site has a 24/7 walk-in evaluation service, a day-treatment program and individual, family and group therapy, in addition to inpatient treatment. The teaching hospital is affiliated with New York Medical College and is a member of the St. Vincent Catholic Medical Centers of New York, anchored by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in Greenwich Village.
The state Office of Mental Health said it had no violations or complaints on file that involved violent incidents at St. Vincent's.
Dr. Richard Milone, medical director of St. Vincent's Westchester, said the patient who contributed to most of the violent October incidents did not have a violent history.
He said the female patient had been treated at the hospital the year before and was readmitted, but this time was pregnant, and doctors couldn't give her the same medication to control her manic behavior as they had in the past.
Her behavior rose to the top level of severity, he said, but the staff was trained in crisis intervention and appeared to be managing the situation.
"It was a horrible, horrible time," Milone said. "But because of the dedication of the staff, this patient has since improved."
The hospital is well within required staffing levels and often brings in more staff if needed, he said.
The hospital thoroughly screens patients and makes a special effort not to admit those with a history of violence, said Dr. Dean Harlam, associate medical director.
"Seven days a week we have to turn people away because we don't treat their illness," Harlam said.
Milone and Harlam said community outpatient mental-health services and better medications have helped manage those with mental illness. But as a result, those admitted to the hospital are much sicker than patients were two decades ago. Cuts to mental health have also burdened the few facilities left, they said.
Bernadette Kingham-Bez, the hospital's new executive director as of Nov. 1, said she "empathizes with the staff who are in the trenches."
"I am very committed to helping them (the staff) heal," she said.