Hartford Hospital On Probation, - Problems include a variety of psychiatric abuses.

We highlight the deficiencies in the psychiatric departments, but it sounds like the whole place is a mess. From the Hartford Courant

Citing multiple lapses in patient care — including four cases in which patients died — the state health department placed Hartford Hospital on probation Friday, demanding sweeping changes in the way the 800-bed teaching hospital delivers care.

"Frankly, we thought we were doing a better job than is identified in the report," said John Meehan, president and chief executive officer of the hospital.

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The disciplinary action — one of the most serious the state can impose — grew out of an investigation that started after the health department received at least 28 complaints from dissatisfied patients or families from 2005 to 2007.

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The fourth death was that of Marcia Maglisco, a Newington grandmother who was taken to Hartford Hospital in October 2007 after her grandson was found dead in a bathtub while she was caring for him.

Although Maglisco was distraught and spoke about suicide, she was discharged from the emergency room several hours after police brought her in. A psychiatrist told her to return to the hospital if she had further problems,the state report says. There was no written documentation of further follow-up instructions.

Maglisco hanged herself in her home a short time later.

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A nurse slapped a distraught psychiatric patient in the face after the patient spit at the nurse, the state says. A psychiatric technician who was punched by a patient retaliated by punching the patient back multiple times.

The report also details deficiencies in the buildings at Hartford Hospital's psychiatric facility, the Institute of Living, that made it possible for patients there to attempt suicide. One patient tried to kill himself by hanging himself from a bedsheet attached to a closet door hinge.

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