State investigates attack on counselor; union urges safeguards at security hospital.
State
safety regulators have launched an investigation into an assault at the
Minnesota Security Hospital that left a staff member hospitalized with
serious injuries.
Officials
with Minnesota OSHA, the state workplace safety agency, made a surprise
visit last Thursday to the security hospital in St. Peter, following a
report that a 16-year-old patient grabbed a security counselor by the
hair, bashed her head against a wall and kicked her in the head
repeatedly.
The
assault is the latest in a recent string of violent attacks on staff at
the state’s largest psychiatric hospital, which houses about 225 of
Minnesota’s most violent and mentally ill patients.
State
OSHA investigators met with security counselors on the hospital unit
where the attack occurred, according to hospital staff, and asked
questions about what may have triggered the violence.
“It’s
clear they are dissecting this very closely,” said Tim Headlee, a
security counselor at the hospital and president of AFSCME Local 404,
which represents about 500 workers at the hospital.
The
state’s failure to bring violence under control at the security
hospital has drawn the attention of Gov. Mark Dayton. On Tuesday,
Dayton’s chief of staff, Jaime Tincher, will tour the facility along
with several state lawmakers, including the head of the legislative
committee that oversees the hospital.
“The
administration is actively engaged in finding solutions that will
ensure the highest possible safety standards for both workers and
patients,” said Dayton spokesman Matt Swenson.
Staff
at the mental hospital have suffered 68 work-related injuries so far
this year, a pace set to easily exceed last year’s record of 101. And at
least two hospital workers have suffered concussions from patient
assaults this year, according to state OSHA records.
“Workers
at the security hospital feel like getting hurt has become part of the
job description,” said Jennifer Munt, a spokeswoman for AFSCME Council
5, which represents 790 workers at state-operated facilities in St.
Peter.
The
state Department of Human Services has taken measures to improve safety
since late last year. This includes installing new cameras in the
high-acute units and common areas; establishing a four-bed admissions
unit to protect new patients from more violent ones, and buying
protective equipment, such as body and forearm pads for staff.
The agency is working to fill 20 security counselor positions and 24 other positions.
Workers
at the hospital said efforts to decrease assaults have been hampered by
rules that limit the use of restraints and seclusion, as well as a new
state law that has forced mental hospitals to accept more patients with
criminal histories who may be more prone to violence. The Legislature
passed a law in 2013, known as the “48-hour rule,” that requires state
facilities like the security hospital to admit county jail inmates
within 48 hours after being committed by a state judge as mentally ill.
The
hospital needs to hire another 54 security counselors to be fully
staffed, 24 hours a day, say AFSCME officials. The union also wants the
hospital to bring back so-called “mobile restraints,” which allow
patients to be able to walk and eat but prevent them from hitting
others.
Hospital
staff currently can use restraints and seclusion only when a patient
poses an “imminent risk” of causing harm to self or others. This
limitation often means that staff feel they cannot respond until after
they have been assaulted, Headlee said.
In
the most recent incident, workers noticed that the unidentified teenage
patient was agitating other patients several hours before the assault.
Counselors escorted him to the hospital courtyard to prevent him from
injuring other patients. But as soon as they reached the courtyard, the
patient grabbed the female security counselor by the hair and bashed her
head against the wall, union officials said.
The staff member was taken to the Mayo Clinic in Mankato and is now recovering at home.
“There
are no consequences for aggressive behavior inside the hospital,” Munt
said. “And until there are consequences, patients won’t be ready to
return to the community.”
@chrisserres