Reported on April 9, 2016, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts ordered that 4 Arbour mental health facilities -- those in Pembroke, Quincy, Westwood and Jamaica Plain, with a combined 363 psychiatric beds -- all owned by Universal Health Services, “urgent patient care and life safety violations.” This is only further and growing evidence of the lack of care with which Universal Health Services continues to provide mental health treatment in its monopoly of care around the nation.
The Massachusetts Department of Health and Safety is reportedly empowered to halt new admissions to these facilities on the grounds of these egregious safety violations revealed through recent inspections are corrected:
"The state agency did not specify the violations uncovered at the facilities, but Pembroke Hospital has come under fire by state and federal regulators since late August when a 20-year-old patient, Amber Mace, was found dead in her room at the hospital. Mace had been dead for at least two hours and her body was already in “full rigor mortis” before any staffer at the 120-bed hospital took action, according to state investigative reports obtained by The Patriot Ledger from the woman’s family. Pembroke Hospital staff was supposed to check on patients’ well-being and verify signs of life at 15-minute intervals through the night, but the safety checks were done improperly because staff did not actually enter Mace’s room and watch for signs of Mace breathing, according to state reports. The state determined that Pembroke Hospital created a 'dangerous and inhumane' condition for Mace and said the policy and treatment failures could have prevented the young woman from receiving meaningful treatment."
The pervasiveness of such substandard are provided by this organization is becoming increasingly clear, and should not be tolerated by state agencies or by the organization itself.
The Massachusetts Department of Health and Safety is reportedly empowered to halt new admissions to these facilities on the grounds of these egregious safety violations revealed through recent inspections are corrected:
"The state agency did not specify the violations uncovered at the facilities, but Pembroke Hospital has come under fire by state and federal regulators since late August when a 20-year-old patient, Amber Mace, was found dead in her room at the hospital. Mace had been dead for at least two hours and her body was already in “full rigor mortis” before any staffer at the 120-bed hospital took action, according to state investigative reports obtained by The Patriot Ledger from the woman’s family. Pembroke Hospital staff was supposed to check on patients’ well-being and verify signs of life at 15-minute intervals through the night, but the safety checks were done improperly because staff did not actually enter Mace’s room and watch for signs of Mace breathing, according to state reports. The state determined that Pembroke Hospital created a 'dangerous and inhumane' condition for Mace and said the policy and treatment failures could have prevented the young woman from receiving meaningful treatment."
The pervasiveness of such substandard are provided by this organization is becoming increasingly clear, and should not be tolerated by state agencies or by the organization itself.
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