Patient-Abuse Charges Under Investigation

As reported in the NY Times (Free reg required)

State health officials and the local police are investigating accusations that patients undergoing psychiatric or substance-abuse treatment at St. Vincent's Westchester Hospital in Harrison, NY have been sexually abused or beaten by other patients, officials said on Friday.

The police have investigated 27 reports of sexual or physical assault at the hospital since 1997, with about a dozen of those investigations currently under way, according to Capt. Anthony Marraccini of the Harrison police.

David E. Worby, a lawyer at Worby Groner Edelman who is pursuing five lawsuits filed since September alleging sexual abuse and beatings at the hospital, said: "There is a pattern of neglect in that hospital that allowed patients to abuse one another. Getting raped when you are seeking treatment at a hospital is just about the worst thing."

"We have criminal convictions on some of these cases and investigations on the others, so for the hospital to deny what is happening is preposterous," Mr. Worby said.