Hospital Tasered Unruly Patient

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Pennsylvania hospital has been cited for failing to follow its own procedures when it tasered a patient who had become physically and verbally agressive.
In a report recently made public by the state Health Department, UPMC Hanover was charged with placing the patient and others at the facility in danger of "serious injury or harm."
According to the report, the hospital has yet to come up with an acceptable plan of correction.
Kelly Mccall, a spokeswoman for the hospital, however, said a plan of correction has been filed which included removing the tasers from the facility and a series of education and retraining sessions for staff along with policy revisions.
Mccall said privacy rules bar the hospital from discussing specific cases, but said the hospital self reported the incident to the state Health Department.
"Patient and staff safety is always our top priority, and we are committed to ensuring the safest possible environment for patient care," she said.
State surveyors reported that the incident took place on March 26 when the patient, who was on a suicide watch, demanded he be allowed to wear his boxer shorts. When he was told he had to remain in hospital scrubs, the patient became verbally and physically abusive and kicked a nurse.
He subsequently banged his head on a counter and said, "Why don't you just kill me.?"
A "Code Green" was called, the report states.
"The patient was going to hurt someone. That is why a code was called," hospital staffers told the state surveyors.
The patient was described as muscular and weighed 200 pounds.
Police were called but they declined to take the patient into custody, hospital records showed.
A hospital security employee then tasered the patient in the abdomen and while he was on the floor other employees placed him in restraints and treated him with drugs including Ativan and Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic.
According to hospital records, the taser had been purchased in 2015 but was only supposed to be used when a patient was being placed in police custody,not as a means of placing a patient in restraints. In addition it was not to be used until all other possible interventions had failed.
"All the patients have the right to be free from physical or mental abuse," the report states, adding that the multiple failures in the handling of the incident placed the patient and others at risk.
After the patient was restrained he was medicated and calmed down in about 20 minutes, the surveyors reported.
He was later transferred to another facility, the inspectors reported.
A review of hospital records by the state inspectors showed restraints were used improperly on three of six patient records reviewed.
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