Problems remain at Wash. hospital

SEATTLE (AP) – Inspectors who visited Washington state’s largest psychiatric hospital found that safety problems that thrust the facility into the national spotlight after the escape of two dangerous patients a year ago persist, including neglected patients.

And a survey of Western State Hospital staff, conducted as part of federal oversight in December and January, found that administrators make decisions that “adversely affect patient safety” and there was a lack of trained or qualified staff, fear of retaliation from managers and too much focus on bureaucracy over staff safety.

The survey and the consultants’ report were obtained by The Associated Press from someone close to the hospital who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation.

State officials say they are making progress, including hiring additional staff members, as they try to turn around the facility since the patients escaped in April 2016. They say correcting problems that have developed over decades will take time to resolve.

Dr. Joseph Wainer, a psychiatrist at the hospital, said the problems continue. He wrote a letter to the editor that recently appeared in the Tacoma, Washington, newspaper in which he alleged that management at the facility was traumatizing employees and patients.