Washington's largest psychiatric hospital has been fined $4,900 for failing to protect workers from assaults by patients.
Public radio's Northwest News Network reported Wednesday that the citation and fine by the Department of Labor and Industries follows an investigation triggered by three assaults at Western State Hospital last year.
In one of the assaults, a patient bit off a portion of a nurse's ear. In the others, the nurses were pushed to the floor and stomped by patients.
The L&I investigation found that Washington's Department of Social and Health Services — which runs the hospital — "did not do everything reasonably necessary to protect employees" from workplace violence, according to a copy of the citation obtained by Northwest News Network.
The agency has 15 days to appeal and has until late April to address the violations.
The Department of Labor and Industries ordered several remedies, including ensuring adequate staffing to protect staff on all shifts, enclosing all nurses' stations and implementing a plan to transfer violent patients to specialty wards.
In a statement, DSHS said it has already taken steps to reduce the likelihood of assaults, including enclosing the nurses' stations in eight of the hospital's 29 wards, with three more wards in progress. To enclose additional wards would require additional funding from the Legislature.
The L&I findings are just the latest in a long series of setbacks for the troubled and aging 857-bed state hospital.
The hospital lost its federal certification and $53 million in federal funding last year after a months-long turnaround effort felt short.
In a budget proposal unveiled earlier this week, House Democrats called for an additional $123 million in spending at both Western and Eastern State Hospitals over the next two years to address safety concerns. The funding would add 530 full-time positions at the facilities and fund specialty programs for patients with intensive needs who pose a risk to patient and staff safety. Senate Democrats are set to release their own budget proposal later this week.
