Notorious Psych Ward at Miami-Dade Jail Finally Shuttered

From this report in the Prison Legal News Website

In a historic culmination to decades of “horrific” living conditions and a pattern of constitutional violations, the Miami-Dade County Jail in Florida has finally closed the “Forgotten Floor” – the notorious ninth floor at the facility that was used to house mentally ill prisoners, often for months and years at a time, with levels of care so abysmal that prisoners routinely died.

“It is thrilling on one level but kind of sad that it has taken so long,” said Miami-Dade Judge Steve Leifman of the December 23, 2014 closure of the jail’s ninth floor. “A lot of people have been hurt or died up there.” Leifman, as chair of the 11th Circuit Mental Health Project, has been a long-time advocate for the mentally ill.

In 2013 alone, three mentally ill prisoners housed on the ninth floor died. On August 26, Joseph Wilner, 59, was found “unresponsive” in his cell; jailed for driving on a suspended license, he was in the unit reserved for the most acute mental cases.

In July 2013, Leifman was informed of the death of wheelchair-bound prisoner Joaquin Cairo. An employee with the jail’s diversion program told the court that Cairo said “someone propositioned him while in custody and when [he] declined they threw him against the bed and against the floor.” Cairo suffered a broken pelvis and died from internal bleeding.

“The neglect was despicable. Despicable,” Leifman said. “He should have been taken to a hospital immediately, and there is absolutely no excuse.”

Three months earlier another psych ward patient, Juan Matos-Flores, who was considered a suicide risk, died after jailers found him unresponsive on the floor of his cell. When staff tried to call 911 they were unable to do so because the phones on the ninth floor were programmed to block outgoing calls. Instead, employees were forced to call another floor to get help.

“It’s a floor that is specifically designed for people who are ill. It’s absurd,” Leifman said after learning of the telephone debacle.

When the ninth floor at the Miami-Dade County Jail closed, some 400 prisoners were transferred to six newly-refurbished wings at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where the telephones allow 911 calls and cameras monitor prisoners in every cell.

[...]

The Miami-Dade County Jail, the nation’s eighth-largest, has been under federal monitoring since the U.S. Department of Justice concluded a three-year investigation in 2011 that found a “pattern and practice in constitutional violations” of prisoners’ rights due to deplorable living conditions.

Leifman was more blunt, calling conditions on the Forgotten Floor “horrific.”

“It was not built to be a psychiatric facility. It was built as a jail [with a cell] for one person, and here two and three people [were placed] in there that are very psychotic,” he said.

The public got its first glimpse of the infamous floor in 2006 when Leifman invited a television reporter and camera crew to document conditions as he guided a tour. “Human beings should not be treated like this. No blankets, no beds, no mattresses. We sleep on the floor,” one prisoner told CBS4 chief investigative reporter Michele Gillen, who found the faucets in cells were not working and prisoners were drinking water from the toilets. Leifman credited Gillen’s reporting with stirring public outrage which, in turn, prompted action.

“We have finally closed the ninth floor, thanks to you,” Leifman told Gillen in an interview. “I don’t think the public ever would have understood how horrendous the situation was, but for your reporting. And it led to where we are today.”

An abrupt end for Houston psychiatric hospital Cambridge facility gives up license and discharges its last patient

One of Houston's largest inpatient psychiatric hospitals closed suddenly last week, leaving a void in a city already underserved.

The 148-bed facility at 7601 Fannin had operated as Cambridge Hospital since 2012. On Monday the phone was disconnected and its website contained only the stark message: Cambridge Hospital is closed. Attempts to reach officials at the facility were unsuccessful.

The hospital surrendered its state license on July 7 and discharged its last patient the same day, said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Those in Houston's mental health community said the closing was not entirely unexpected.

"I was hearing that this was coming," said Steve Glazier, chief operating officer at Harris County Psychiatric Center, the area's largest facility with 250 beds. He said administrators acknowledged financial struggles to him more than a year ago.

[...]

Cambridge Hospital began operating in 2012 in the space that once housed IntraCare Medical Center, once the second-largest inpatient facility in the county.

IntraCare closed after losing its certification from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which had declared it "an immediate and serious threat to patient health and safety."

Iowa's Governor Terry Branstad seeks to close two mental institutes

From a much longer report at the Des Moines Register

Gov. Terry Branstad has proposed closing two of the state's four institutes for people with mental illnesses.

The proposal startled legislators of both parties, although the idea of closing at least one of the institutes has been debated off and on for decades, as their populations dwindled and costs soared.

[...]

Branstad suggested during a budget hearing last month that he wanted to consider consolidating some of the services at the institutions. "The facilities are obsolete, and it's extremely expensive" to use them the way the state now does, he said then. However, he said he had no immediate plans to do so.

According to his new budget, however, Branstad wants to zero out spending for the Mount Pleasant and Clarinda institutions. According to the budget, the state is spending nearly $7 million on the Mount Pleasant facility this budget year and $8.7 million on the Clarinda facility.

Local legislators were surprised by the Governor's budget proposals, and are in a panic over the proposed closings

Alabama Psychiatric Services to close all offices Feb. 13

Edited from a Report on AL.com

Alabama Psychiatric Services will close all locations across the state by Feb. 13, according to Richard Craig, executive director of the Jefferson, Blount, St. Clair Counties Mental Health Authority.

Craig said employees at his agency have been working with insurance providers to find new care for patients treated at facilities run by Alabama Psychiatric Services.

The company has locations in Birmingham, Cullman, Decatur, Dothan, Fairhope, Florence, Madison, Mobile, Montgomery and Tuscaloosa, according to the website.

Executives from the company have not returned calls seeking comment, but a receptionist at one office confirmed that they were no longer taking new patients.

[...]

An employee at the clinic told Allen that they found out just yesterday that the facility would be closing on Feb. 13. Allen had not heard anything about the closing.

[...]

Executives at Alabama Psychiatric Services notified Blue Cross Blue Shield on Friday that they were closing all their offices across the state, wrote spokeswoman Koko Mackin in an email.

"Blue Cross is working diligently to minimize any inconvenience these office closures may cause for our members and their families," Mackin wrote. "We are disappointed about these closures and are doing everything we can to assist our members during this transition."

Craig said he didn't know how the closure will affect access to mental health care in Alabama.

[...]

California child psych facility closes following 518 state violations

As Reported in the San Jose Mercury News

The region's center for emotionally disturbed children is abruptly shutting its doors, following scathing reports of unsafe conditions and multiple violations of state law governing locked treatment facilities.

Although owners of the Starlight Adolescent Center in San Jose said its closing was not connected to recent complaints, records show the facility was cited by state officials in recent months for 14 violations that placed children in "immediate risk" and 12 others that posed potential harm.

State records show one youth had his arm broken in January while being restrained; a bulimic teenager lost 15 pounds at the facility, and staff complained to state investigators of inadequate training.

In addition, in February, an outside agency charged the Starlight facility with "unlawful and irresponsible" behavior for its use of physical restraint and seclusion to subdue the teenage mentally ill patients, including 518 violations of state law. "Starlight must be sanctioned for its failure to protect vulnerable children," said the second critical audit of the facility in two years by the Mental Health Advocacy Project, which the county funds to monitor the rights of mentally ill patients.

The decision to close the facility in June comes amid a growing concern among experts about the wisdom of keeping mentally ill youth in locked facilities on a long-term basis. The average stay at Starlight is one year.

Santa Clara County began sending youth to the 36-bed center in South San Jose seven years ago; children 12 to 18 years old are placed there by county foster care, mental health and juvenile probation officials. The facility also accepts youth from other counties, as well as some children brought there by distraught parents.

No contract renewal

Nancy Pena, director of the Santa Clara County Department of Mental Health, said Wednesday the county decided not to renew its contract with Starlight, beginning this June, and instead to rely on unlocked group homes and supervised family care. Because the county owns the building and local residents are a significant portion of the clients, this made it impossible for the facility to remain open, Pena said.

Both Pena and Mary Jane Gross, the founder and head of Stars Behavioral Health Group, the for-profit parent company that owns Starlight, flatly denied that recent reports contributed to the decision to permanently shutter the facility.

Gross said the agency is a victim of its own success. "The reason is that we have been successful at graduating close to 300 youth over the past seven years and there is a reduced need for this high-level program," Gross said. "We have been able to transition many of these children into community settings."

Her firm "vehemently" denied the conclusions reached by investigators. On March 18, Stars Behavioral Health Group challenged the Mental Health Advocacy Project's reports as "sensationalized and irresponsible," and ultimately harmful to the children served by Starlight.

[...]

Pattern of violence

But Mental Health Advocacy Project senior attorney Brenna Silberstein described a "nearly daily pattern of violence" at Starlight. "For us, this is really about the safety of the children," she said.

Since January, state officials have had similar concerns, following the incident where a child's arm was broken by a Starlight staff member. In one 90-minute spot check, agents with the Community Care Licensing division noted a total of 14 California law violations, including poor supervision of children attempting to harm themselves, a lack of documentation for a girl so over-medicated she slept all day, and the failure to monitor the food intake of the bulimic child.

Staff members told state investigators they do not feel adequately trained to work with the population and meet their clients' needs, specifically regarding behavior management. The state also found Starlight failed to report, or under-reported incidents of restraint and seclusion, and has cited Starlight for the violations in addition to requiring multiple corrective action plans.

"We're always concerned with any kinds of deficiency or violation and we move to take immediate action," said Shirley Washington, spokeswoman for the California Department of Social Services. "These are disturbing reports, absolutely. And that's why we went in to take the appropriate action."

Santa Clara County agency directors said Wednesday they are now pulling children out of the facility, moving them to group homes or back with families supported by social worker help. Currently, only 20 of the beds are filled.

[...]

Psychiatric facility told to relocate patients, threatened with closing

From the Longview News Journal

Acadia Pathways Hospital, a psychiatric facility in North Longview, has been forced to move all its patients to other establishments after a state investigation into complaints about patient care and hospital management.

The Texas Department of State Health Services issued an emergency 10-day suspension of Acadia's license on Thursday. The state agency also delivered a notice of violation to Acadia, detailing the department's proposal to revoke Acadia's license.

Acadia administrators are scheduled to meet today with state officials to discuss the violations and determine what needs to be done.

"If we are satisfied that the conditions are successfully addressed, we can ... re-instate the license," said Doug McBride, press officer for the State Health Services Department. "If we're not satisfied, the most severe action would be the revocation of the license permanently, or at least not temporarily."

If Acadia's license is revoked, it would have to reapply for one to operate again.

The state began investigating the facility in October, after a complaint was filed.

There are specific violations listed in the state's notice to Acadia, including an incident in September of a facility psychiatrist physically assaulting a 16-year-old patient.

Other violations are more general, such as Acadia's failure to have a written staffing plan from July to October that was based on the number of patients, the patients' needs, the expertise of the staff and other factors.

Acadia Pathways, owned by Acadia Heathcare, is a 76-bed hospital that treats people of all ages suffering from psychiatric illnesses and chemical dependency, according to its Web site.

The notice from the state department was addressed to Pamela Broughton, listed as Acadia's administrator/CEO on the facility's Web site.

A call placed Monday to Acadia revealed that Broughton no longer works there. Hospital officials would not answer a request for comment on Monday, but said a statement will be made today.

State files suit, levies fines over psychiatrist burning medical records

From this report

The state filed a lawsuit Wednesday and levied fines of $1 million against the owner of a Salem Township property where huge piles of burning medical records were found in August.

The seven-count complaint, filed by Attorney General Mike Cox for the state Department of Community Health, cites Dr. Soon K. Kim and his companies - Quality Health Plan and Signature Healthcare Services Inc. - for burning piles of records, some as large as a van, in violation of the public health code and privacy laws. Also named in as a co-defendant in the lawsuit was Dong Won (David) Kim.

The fines were imposed by the state Department of Community Health against Kim and Quality Health Plan for the improper disposal of health records.

The 415-acre property, at 6646 Six Mile Road, belongs to Soon Kim. He owned the bankrupt Greater Detroit Hospital, also known as North Detroit General Hospital. Officials said the records contained patient medical information, x-rays, and Social Security numbers.

Kim and his attorney, Laura Sanders, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Kim has had a medical license as a psychiatrist in Michigan since 1973.

The suit alleges that on Aug. 29, David Kim was burning at least three large bonfires on the Salem Township property, and told police that Sanders told him to do it. The suit said David Kim had been dumping and burning on the Salem Township property since October or November 2006.

Some of the records, according to the suit, were blowing onto other properties.

The state is seeking a preliminary injunction against burning any other medical records, and an order asking for the address and owner of all locations from which the records were taken. The state also wants information about who created the records, how many were destroyed, how far back the records went, and a description of what was destroyed.

The lawsuit asks that Kim be ordered to hire a reputable disposal company to destroy the records, and to allow the Department of Environmental Quality to determine whether the site was contaminated by burning the x-rays.

A criminal investigation into the burning, which is illegal under both privacy and toxic waste laws, remains open, officials said.

The lawsuit can be downloaded from this link

Another Psychiatrist Under Investigation Closes Office

From WKRC TV Local 12 in Cincinatti Ohio

A local psychiatrist shuts down his office while state officials are taking a serious look at the way he does business.

Local 12 has learned that, for the last few weeks, investigators from the Kentucky State Medical Board have been looking at the practices of Covington psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Rank.

Allegations have been made against Rank that he over medicates patients, and it's not the first time he's come up on charges.

Local 12's Rich Jaffe says the sudden closing of Rank's store front operation, has left some of his patients wondering what they don't know about their doctor.

Jerry Black showed up today at 12 West Pike Street in Covington, expecting to see his doctor. What he found was a letter saying the office is closed.

Jerry Black, Patient: "Makes me wonder why it's closed, and he didn't tell anybody, didn't send me a letter...makes me curious what he did wrong you know..."

Until recently, Dr. Douglas Rank operated his psychiatric practice out of this store front. His attorney says he advised him to close the doors, while a number of investigations take their course.

An investigation by the Kentucky State Medical Board is based on complaints by Emily Hill that Rank gave her too many drugs. Hill says, with piles of prescriptions, she was sleeping 18 hours a day.

Emily Hill, Ex-Patient: "He just said, well you need these drugs to function, and I said, Doctor Rank I can't function like this. I feel like I'm on too many drugs and he really just kind of blew it off."

Hill's husband, who worked in Dr. Rank's office, says as soon as another doctor took his wife off her meds, she came out of her zombie-like state.

Robert Hill, Patient's Husband: "She starts coming back, recovering, she starts to be the Emily I used to know, and I thought, well gosh, I've got some problems with this you know."

Douglas Rank has been brought up on charges by the Kentucky Medical Board before. In May of 2000, he admitted to having a sexual relationship with a patient... and in November of that year, his license was restricted because he wrote another patient 57 different prescriptions for controlled substances over a 15 month period. As a result of action in Kentucky, he had his license revoked in the state of New York, and Ohio permanently denied him a license to practice in 2003.

"The letter to Dr. Rank's patients on his door says the office is now closed, in the best interest of the patients, he lists a phone number here and since he wasn't available to talk with us on camera we decided to call that number to see what Rank was telling the people who counted on him."

"The office is closed for business in the best interest of our patients. The doctor will call in enough prescription refills for you to find alternate care."

While Rank didn't want to talk with us, a friend and self professed business partner, who's opening an outreach operation in the old office, says Dr. Rank isn't done in Northern Kentucky.

Dennis Northcutt, Noah's Ark: "He's not going to be working straight up forward with us, but he's going to be pointing me in the right direction of how I should get help for people."

Rich Jaffe, Local 12.

We wanted to interview Dr. Rank about these issues, his attorney advised him to decline. As part of his sanctions in 2001, Dr. Rank agreed to probationary terms that included "abstaining from sex with patients, continuing to receive psychiatric treatment, and participation in the Kentucky Impaired Physicians Program. He was also ordered to use a chaperon in all contacts with female patients.

Man Sentenced After Murdering His Wife - Had Been on Anti-Depressants

From TV News 8 in Austin, Texas

A Bastrop County man was sentenced to 10 years probation after pleading guilty to murder.

Robert Crerar, 67, dialed 911 in October 2006 and told dispatchers he had killed his 73-year-old wife in their home near Paige.

Prosecutors say they presented the court with evidence showing the defendant stabbed his wife 47 times.

The defense claimed Crerar was suffering from severe depression and was taking a dangerous mix of antidepressants.

Some victims' right advocates say the probation sentence sends the wrong message.

Bastrop County DA Bryan Goertz says the evidence tells a different story.

"That would be a common reaction. Unless the person was in the courtroom and actually heard the evidence, it would be difficult to say it was an appropriate reaction," Goertz said.

[...]

Pennsylvania State AG investigating East Stroudsburg doctor

As Reported in the Pocono Record News

The state attorney general is investigating Dr. Harold J. Pascal, a psychologist with a practice in East Stroudsburg.

Pascal's office was searched recently for illegal drugs or signs of drug-related activity, according to court records.

Pascal has closed his practice, leaving patients with only a signed note on the door that says, "Please go to the emergency room or RedCo for treatment."

The closing follows a hearing in Monroe County court last week at which an attorney for Pascal requested the return of items seized in a law enforcement search of the doctor's office.

The record of the hearing has been sealed. A decision is expected later this week.

Pascal, saying he is retiring, resigned recently as the doctor who does psychiatric evaluations for the Stroudsburg Area School District.

Pascal's office is at 233 E. Brown St. [...]

Psychiatric hostel’s funds stopped

A psychiatric clinic in Western Australia has run into trouble.

The WA Health Department has withdrawn funding and will review the licence of Devenish Lodge, a private psychiatric hostel in Victoria Park, amid fears it is failing to care properly for its 40 patients.

The department said yesterday that it had been forced to withdraw its funding subsidy for the 41-bed lodge because it had failed to improve standards.

Chief psychiatrist Rowan Davidson said the department had been working with the hostel for the past two years to address concerns about the management of diabetic residents, assistance with hygiene and personal care.

But he said it had become apparent recently that the necessary changes had not been made at the hostel.

“The department had no choice but to stop the payment to the hostel, which derives the majority of its funding through the residents’ Commonwealth Government pensions,” Dr Davidson said.

“This is a very stressful time for the residents of Devenish Lodge and their families, and we have assured them that this action has been taken in an effort to improve their living standards.”

Dr Davidson said the department’s licensing standards and review unit was now assessing the hostel’s licence.

It remained willing to work with the facility to improve its standards of care.

In the meantime, the department was putting contingencies in place in case any of the residents wanted to move.

The West Australian contacted the hostel for comment yesterday but was told that the licensee, Dr Adrian Hobley, was unavailable to speak.

Shutting down Taunton State Hospital

The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health is shutting down Taunton State Hospital, hoping to save $2.2 million a year. The unit's population already has been reduced to just four men, this according to Lester Blumberg, chief of staff at the mental health department

The unit was created in response to a court order 13 years ago after five severely retarded men died at Bridgewater State Hospital where attorneys found patients isolated for as much as 23 hours a day, sometimes naked, psychotic, and despairing.

See also this Boston Channel 5 report.

Georgia psych facility to close down

The board of directors for University Hospital in Georgia has voted to stop taking psychiatric inpatients Sept. 12 and to close the Behavioral Health Center on Sept. 30.

The move follows a steady decline in the number of mental health patients and services at University, which stopped offering outpatient services in October 2001 and has been unable to recruit psychiatrists to replace those who have retired, officials said.

The unit has gone from having an average of 19 patients a day in 2000 to only 1 or 2 on some days recently, said Jason Moore, the chief operating officer for University.

Another place that is going under.

Another Psych Hospital is shutting down

The Culpeper Regional Hospital in Virginia has announced that it will close Pinebrooke Psychiatric Center on October 31. As the hospital noted in a news release:

"The board [of trustees] has agreed that while acute psychiatric care is important, it is not financially viable in the current healthcare economic climate ..."

The review also found that psychiatrists have become harder to recruit.

Virginia Psychiatric Medicine, which is owned by Culpeper Regional Hospital and provides psychiatrists and other mental-health staff members for Pinebrooke, will also close Oct. 31.

[which I note that the facilities will be closing on Halloween.]

Ironic

Town undecided on what to do with closed psych hospital

The Fairfield State Hospital in Connecticut was established in 1933, and was closed in 1995. Facilities included a large farm, a sewage treatment plant and a dozen major buildings as well as staff housing. In 1998, Fairfield Hills consisted of 100 buildings on a 185-acre campus. Fairfield Hills was one of the largest mental health facilities in the state until it closed its door in 1995. At its peak it housed over 4,000 patients. The main campus consists mostly of large 2-3 story buildings ranging in size from 15,000-200,000 square feet. There are alot other smaller buildings on the edge of the campus that had served as living quarters for staff. Architecturally, the buildings of the complex are more interesting than many other institutional buildings built during the 1930s.

The Newtown, Connecticut community currently has plans underway to find new uses for the complex. As seen in this report, the town is still discussing what to do with the facility, having rejected the most recent master plan from the Planning and Zonning Commision. More details here

Fairfield Hills had a reputation for problems between administrators and employees as well as other unpleasant issues such as patient escapes, mistreatment of patients, and mysterious deaths.

There are an unusual number of websites dedicated to the former facility.

Ongoing Re-Developement Plans for Closed Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center and Grounds

The Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center (HVPC) in Wingdale, New York was was closed in February 1994 by then NY governor Mario Cuomo. Various groups have been involved in the plans to sell off the facility, and on Nov. 17, 1999 the sale was approved for $3.95 million to TP Enterprises LLC, now Pearson Partners. The development options include residential facilities, senior living facility, retail, office and/or light industrial facilities. In November 1999 the office of Governor George Pataki said that these developments could bring more than $80 million in private sector investment and creation of more than 500 jobs to the surrounding area. Today, there is a nine-hole golf course that is used by the Harlem Valley Golf Club. There are 70-acres set aside for agricultural use and two of the area's most important environmental resources, the Swamp River and the Great Swamp, are on the grounds. The Application Trail, which passes through the property, is surrounded by a federal easement . The site has made it into the local papers with the prospects of further development involving the Harlem Valley Partnership, which has been working with the buyer to develop a list of grants that could be used towards the redevelopment of the property. The Partnership has been even been in contact with a nationally-known artist to house a huge mural on the grounds.

Shutting Down A Psychiatric Hospital

Saint Francis Care Behavioral Health has announced the effective shutdown of the Portland Psychiatric Campus at 25 Marlborough St. in Portland, Connecticut, moving the remaing patients to other facilities. As recently as the late 1990s, the facility was one of the state’s largest private psychiatric hospitals.

In recent years, the facility has been rocked by controversy. In 1997, 11-year-old Andrew McClain died from traumatic asphyxia and chest compression while being restrained at the facility, when it was operated as Elmcrest. In January 2000, a female patient died after suffering cardiac arrest at the facility. According to the medical examiner, she died of "acute mixed drug intoxication." An investigation showed that she was taking as many as 12 different medications a day.

Last September, the state Department of Children and Families terminated a $9.8 million contract with the facility. Prior to the termination of the contract, however, records indicate that the state had investigated 34 incidents at the facility since the start of the contract.

According to papers filed with OHCA, St. Francis experienced an operating loss of $10,657,139 in fiscal year 2002, and is projected to experience an operating loss of $2.488 million in fiscal year 2004, even without the proposal to relocate the Chapman Unit to Hartford.

Officials from St. Francis Care Behavioral Health said the investigation and controversies in recent years have no bearing on the decision to relocate the remaining outpatient services at the Portland Campus to the Mt. Sinai Campus in Hartford.

St. Francis leases the facility from Portland. A local official hopes a new tenant will lease or sub-lease the facility. "It’s a very beautiful campus, so we are hopeful that there will be interest. The facility is obviously geared towards being a hospital, but that’s not to say that it couldn’t be used for other purposes," he said.

Maybe something more productive.