Another Suicide in Temple Psych Unit

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Citing four serious incidents, including two suicides in an eight month period, state Health officials are calling for the board and other top officials at the Temple University Hospital to take control of a troubled behavioral care unit.
In a report just made public state Health surveyors concluded the board "failed to provide the necessary supervision and oversight" at the psychiatric unit resulting in "patterns of serious events and infrastructure failures."
In the latest incident in December a patient who was being discharged from the Crisis Response Center at the Episcopal campus, committed suicide by jumping out a third floor window.
The suicide followed two incidents of aggressive behavior by the patient. When an employee triggered an emergency call for assistance the patient bolted away and jumped out a window.
Through interviews and reviews of videotapes the surveyors reconstructed the incident including the decision of one of the hospital employees to issue an emergency assistance call.
"It was determined that the facility failed to provide the necessary care to ensure a safe discharge from the CRC," the report states.
According to the report hospital employees failed to follow the hospital's own procedures for handling incidents of aggresive behavior.
One employee who was involved in the incident said the patient did not respond when he told him he was going the wrong way.
"I was behind the hallway door and I heard glass breaking, which made me speed up," the employee said.
The report notes that none of the staffers contacted the patient's doctor as they should have.
Another employee told the Health Department officials that a group of employees should have escorted the patient after the aggressive behavior was displayed.
In its plan of correction the hospital said the board was informed of the incident and physically toured the area.
The plan includes the hiring of an outside consultant to draw up a series of recommendations.
The plan also includes the installation of plexiglass and stationing a security guard in the discharge area.
The report notes the previous incidents including the patient who committed suicide by hanging and another incident where a patient who was allowed to keep his cigarette lighter subsequently started a fire in an emergency department hallway.
Hospital officials did not respond to a series of questions about the incident.
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