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Montana state mental hospital loses federal money as well as oversight1
Conditions got so bad at Montana's state mental hospital in 2022 that federal officials withdrew support. The state says things are getting better; patient's families say there's no evidence of that.
A MART?NEZ, HOST:
Four patients at the state mental hospital in Montana died in a single week last year. Federal regulators concluded all the deaths were preventable. That led to the loss of millions of dollars in federal funding and the end of federal oversight of the hospital. Patient advocates say the result is a lot less transparency into a troubled institution. Montana Public Radio's Aaron Bolton reports.
JENNIFER MITCHELL: Hello.
MITCHELL: This is my husband's family's home.
BOLTON: Jennifer Mitchell is restoring her late husband's childhood home in the mountain town of Butte. It's helping4 her fill the time since he died a year and a half ago.
MITCHELL: Here's a picture of my husband. We did some cruises. We went to the Centennial Ball, Montana Centennial Ball, 1989.
BOLTON: When the pandemic hit, Bill who was 69, started to become paranoid and forgetful. He eventually crashed his car, winding5 up in the ER.
MITCHELL: And they thought he had the hallmarks of dementia.
BOLTON: Doctors legally committed bill to the Montana State Hospital as a danger to himself or others. After 60 days, he was discharged with meds for severe depression, but not his drugs for congestive heart failure. The hospital had taken him off those. A month later, he went into cardiac arrest. Jennifer blames the medication change.
MITCHELL: He turned 70 on July 29 and still lingered and lingered. And finally, his brother came to visit him. And he died the next morning. He was just waiting to see his brother.
BOLTON: The following winter, four patients died in one week at the state mental hospital. There was a serious assault shortly after that. And that's when the federal government pulled millions of dollars in Medicare and Medicaid funding. Losing that money is bad, Danny Tenenbaum says. But losing federal oversight is worse. Tenenbaum is a former state lawmaker and public defender6 who's represented state hospital patients.
DANNY TENENBAUM: Federal investigators7 are not able to go in there and report to the public as to what's going on there.
BOLTON: That means serious incidents could fall through the cracks, as state law allows administrators8 to keep details from the public.
TENENBAUM: It's a black hole.
BOLTON: A patient watchdog group says state law prevents releasing information that federal investigations9 used to make public. Mary Caferro, a Democratic lawmaker from Helena, wants to require the state to publicly disclose information about patient safety incidents at the state mental hospital.
MARY CAFERRO: The legislature, when we have good information, thorough information, we make better policy that's in the best interest of the people we represent.
BOLTON: Right now, lawmakers rely on people running the hospital to flag any problems. Charlie Brereton, head of the state health department, recently told them things are getting better.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHARLIE BRERETON: We've stabilized10 MSH since that decertification with a change in leadership and with no significant increases in deaths, serious injuries or substantiated11 abuse or neglect allegations.
BOLTON: But Brereton, who declined an interview, didn't give any details about those incidents. A records request found 13 substantiated reports of abuse, neglect and severe patient injuries since the hospital lost federal funding. There were also six deaths. And the details are important, says David Hutt with the national patient advocacy group Disability Rights Network.
DAVID HUTT: Raw numbers aren't going to tell you that someone was forced into an illegal four-point restraint, was knocked down, that residents were allowed to fight each other because of lack of staffing.
BOLTON: Montana's Republican governor, Greg Gianforte, wants to spend 320 million of the state's $2.6 billion surplus reforming the state's mental health system. That includes bringing back federal oversight. Gianforte says previous Democratic administrations neglected the state hospital. And federal funding was at risk for violations12 on the watch of Montana's previous Democratic governor in 2017. But the state resolved the complaints. Democrats13 say more funding is sorely needed and patient advocates agree, so the state hospital can remain a fixture14. But they also want more transparency about safety problems.
MITCHELL: This is my cat, Jamison (ph). Hey, Jamie (ph).
BOLTON: It's about a hundred miles from Montana's capitol, over the mountains, back to Butte, where Jennifer Mitchell is mourning her husband. She doesn't think the state hospital can be saved.
MITCHELL: This whole hospital needs to be completely just disbanded. And they need to start from scratch.
BOLTON: She fears only more patients will get severely15 injured or die at the state hospital so long as its doors remain open.
For NPR News, I'm Aaron Bolton in Butte, Mont.
1 oversight | |
n.勘漏,失察,疏忽 | |
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2 transcript | |
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书 | |
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3 byline | |
n.署名;v.署名 | |
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4 helping | |
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的 | |
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5 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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6 defender | |
n.保卫者,拥护者,辩护人 | |
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7 investigators | |
n.调查者,审查者( investigator的名词复数 ) | |
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8 administrators | |
n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 );有管理(或行政)才能的人;(由遗嘱检验法庭指定的)遗产管理人;奉派暂管主教教区的牧师 | |
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9 investigations | |
(正式的)调查( investigation的名词复数 ); 侦查; 科学研究; 学术研究 | |
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10 stabilized | |
v.(使)稳定, (使)稳固( stabilize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11 substantiated | |
v.用事实支持(某主张、说法等),证明,证实( substantiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12 violations | |
违反( violation的名词复数 ); 冒犯; 违反(行为、事例); 强奸 | |
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13 democrats | |
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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14 fixture | |
n.固定设备;预定日期;比赛时间;定期存款 | |
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15 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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