Bedlam in Johnstown Hospital Behavioral Unit

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

One patient beat another on the face, neck and chest with a walker. Another patient struck a nurse in the head and arm. Yet another patient spat in a nurse's face.
That was the scene painted in a state Health Department report on the 436-bed Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center. The recently released report concludes the hospital failed to provide care in a safe setting.
Hospital officials did not respond to questions and the hospital failed to file an acceptable plan of correction, according to the state Health Department report.
The report cites a lack of adequate staffing and a lack of training of the existing staff in providing care to patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The state surveyors learned from interviews with staff that there already were staffing problems when the hospital management merged distinct units, one for adults, the other for elderly, "resulting in patient harm."
"The elderly on this floor don't get the care they need," a staffer told surveyors.
The nursing staff, the report states, was repeatedly overwhelmed and had to call on security personnel to physically restrain patients. In the adult unit there were 61 calls for security Feb. 1 and Aug. 31.
Injuries to both medical staff and security staff were reported. The medical staff called security when patients engaged in various behaviors including "biting, thrashing around in bed, self induced vomiting and throwing objects, including a mattress, at staff.
The security staff assistance included physically restraining patients while medical staff medicated or applied restraints to the patients.
A staffer told the state surveyors about the incident when a patient attacked another patient with a walker after an argument over a card game.
"It happened so fast, if we had more help it might not have happened," Employee 13 told the inspectors.
Another employee said she feared for her own and the patients' safety when she was assigned 11 different patients for one shift. Another nurse said an individual nurse could be assigned up to 20 patients
"We just need more help," the employee told the surveyors.
One of the behavioral patients walked away without staff even noticing. They only learned of the elopement hours later when the patient's spouse called to report the 76-year-old had walked back to their home.
"The nurse was not aware the patient was gone," the report states.
Contact: wfrochejr999@gmail.com