Eloping Patient Struck By Vehicle

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A suicidal patient at a Chester County hospital, who was supposed to be on a one-to-one watch, was able to walk out the door without detection only to be hit by a motor vehicle shortly afterwards.
According to a report by Pennsylvania Health Department surveyors the incident occurred on Aug. 27 at the Chester County Hospital. The surveyors cited the hospital for its failure to protect the patient, a minor, and for its handling of several other psychiatric patients in its emergency department.
The report does not give any details of the injuries suffered by the unnamed patient.
Employees of the 248 bed hospital told the state inspection team that the hospital simply did not have the resources "to handle these patients with behavioral issues. We are dependent on the county to place these patients."
The hospital had yet to file an approved plan of correction when the report was first made public last week. Hospital officials did not respond to a request for comment.
On their Oct. 3 visit to the Penn Health facility observed several patients being kept in hallways due to a lack of available beds.
In fact the eloping patient had just been moved from a patient room to make room for another more critical patient. And the day before that the same patient had eloped by the same door.
The staffer who moved the patient to the emergency area told surveyors,"If I had it to do over again I would not have moved her to a hallway bed."
According to a review of hospital records the patient had told staffers that she needed to go to the bathroom, but instead at 11:50 p.m. exited through an ambulance door, the same one she had used the day before.
The patient, who had been in the hospital for a total of 47 hours, had earlier expressed suicidal ideations telling hospital aides that she didn't want to live anymore. At one point she was placed in a four point restraint, the report states. Then she tried to bite off the restraints.
The surveyors observed other patients in the emergency department bedded indefinitely in hallways. Hospital workers were taking patient histories oin open areas.
They also cited the hospital for failing to protect patients' privacy. One patient was observed in open view removing her gown while undergoing an examination.
Another patient was observed in a loud verbal exchange with security guards.
A hospital employee told the surveyors, "We have to acquire privacy screens."
The staffer assigned to constantly monitor another patient was actually sitting across the hallway from the patient's room.
Citing "a systemic nature of non-compliance," the report states, "A hospital must protect and promote each patient's rights."
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