Psychiatric hospital hit with record fine
Nurses’ union president says ‘there’s a high level of fear’ among workers due to violent attacks
B.C. taxpayers are on the hook for a $646,305 fine levied against the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital by WorkSafeBC for failing to ensure the safety of five health-care workers who were injured in two separate violent attacks at the Coquitlam hospital last spring.
The fine, the largest WorkSafeBC penalty to date, comes after investigations in March and May of 2018, according to WorkSafeBC incident reports obtained by Postmedia through a freedom-of-information request.
In the first incident, a patient with a history of violence who had recently been in a jail was admitted to a unit for “geriatric and medically frail” patients against hospital protocol and the concerns of staff. He injured three workers before being restrained, said the WorkSafeBC report.
Just over a month later, another patient injured two workers when he “lunged” at a doctor who was asking him questions.
The head of the B.C. Nurses’ Union said nurses at the hospital, which treats mentally ill patients who have been declared unfit to stand trial or not criminally responsible, felt “validated” by the fine, which was announced Thursday.
“Many of the staff working there have been assaulted,” said Christine Sorensen. “They have peers who have been assaulted and haven’t come back to work. There’s a pretty high level of fear.”
The BCNU president said the union’s concerns about staff safety have gone unanswered for years. In the months following the two attacks, there were two more violent incidents.
In September, the Provincial Health Services Authority, which oversees the hospital, announced the results of an external review and promised to hire more staff and make improvements to security and training.
An authority spokesperson was not available for an interview Thursday. In a statement, Lynn Pelletier, the vice-president for B.C. Mental Health, said the hospital is “a different place than it was last spring.” She pointed to recent improvements, including the recruitment of new security and clinical staff, improved training, facility upgrades and a new leadership team.
“Aggressive incidents have decreased significantly,” she said.
But Sorensen said that while the health authority has made some changes, they are happening too slowly. “We’re still not sure if they will actually create a safer working environment,” she said.
The WorkSafeBC incident reports obtained by Postmedia show the hospital had policies in place to protect staff last spring, but they weren’t always followed.
In the first incident, which took place in March, a “remand patient” — defined in the report as a person who is supposed to be held in custody for a psychiatric assessment or to await the outcome of their trial or transfer to a treatment unit — was admitted to a unit for geriatric patients. The geriatric unit does not normally take remand patients, who are considered high risk and normally housed in a maximum-security unit.
A short time later, the patient attacked a health-care worker and “attempted to ____ the worker,” according to the report, which was heavily redacted. Another direct care nurse intervened and the patient “attempted to ____ the direct care nurse.”
A security team responded after a “personal panic alarm system” was activated, but “while trying to restrain the patient, a third worker received multiple injuries.”
In the second incident, just 34 days later according to the BCNU, a doctor met with a patient in a seclusion room to give him a “face-to-face” update on his care. A hastily assembled “seclusion team” joined the doctor. According to the incident report, the patient was sitting on his bed as the doctor knelt down to talk to him. When the doctor repeated a question twice, the patient “lunged at the doctor.” Two workers were injured as they tried to contain the patient.