Three outside experts in patient treatment at psychiatric wards have agreed to serve as advisers for the University Medical Center. Their assignment follows recent controversy in the hospital, including three alleged sexual assaults by a former employee in addition to misuse of restraining devices in the psychiatric unit.
University of Rochester Medical Center staff members Glenn W. Currier and Carole Farley-Toombs will team with Gail Wiscarz Stuart of the Medical University of South Carolina.
They will work with the hospital's chief clinical officer, Pamela F. Cipriano for the next six to eight weeks.
Under Cipriano's direction, the team will review the hospital's quality of care, effectiveness of administrative systems and changes in institutional support needed to improve the quality of psychiatric services.
"We want to take advantage of the expertise of persons who are in position to assess our processes and ensure we are using those best practices that allow us to provide the very best care to our patients," said Leonard W. Sandridge, University executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Cipriano will coordinate their visits, receive recommendations, and work with hospital faculty and staff to review and implement suggestions for improvement.
The team of experts has two main goals: "to suggest additional measures for behavior management that could achieve an effective, safe and restraint-free environment, and to assure that the University program of psychiatric services meets accepted standards of medical and nursing practice," Sandridge said.
At Sandridge's request, Anita Smith Everett, inspector general for Virginia's mental health system, also will provide an educational session for hospital physicians and staff. She will teach good medical practices she has observed in other state facilities.
Following two alleged sexual assaults in the spring by former hospital employee Rudolph T. Johnson Jr. and reports that psychiatric restraints were being used improperly, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put the hospital on immediate jeopardy status. If problems in the psychiatric ward had not been remedied by July 3, the hospital could have lost its ability to accept Medicare payments, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of its revenue last year.
The actions the Medical Center took to address and remove the immediate jeopardy status concerns raised by CMS were successful, Cipriano said.
"However, we believe there will always be a need to review our practices and identify other improvements we might make for tong term effectiveness," she said. "This is true for psychiatric care as well as other hospital services"
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