Healthcare Compliance Perspective:
Patient Abuse violates Medicare Conditions of Participation which, in turn, result in claim submissions violating the False Claims Act.
Videotapes taken over a period of weeks revealed the graphic details of the abuse that some of the hospital’s employees had heaped onto an elderly patient for months on end. The allegations of staff misconduct revealed by a whistleblower have resulted in the suspension of 31 staff members and the arrest of nine persons.
The victim, now 62-years-old, has been in the facility since 1995, when he was admitted after killing his father for reason of mental disease or defect. The accusations of abuse include staff tormenting him by putting a diaper on his head, dousing him with water, throwing food at him, putting salt in his coffee, kicking him and placing a wet dirty mop on his head.
The publicity surrounding this case has resulted in reports from current and former staff, relatives of patients, and others claiming that the abuse of the elderly man is not an isolated incident. It is alleged that other patients have been abused and there are other instances of staff wrongdoing involving other patients. Besides abusing patients, the accusations involve claims that doctors’ orders have been overridden, and there have been forgeries of doctors’ signatures and documents.
This public revelation of what has been happening in the state’s only maximum security psychiatric hospital has Connecticut officials calling for major changes. Connecticut state police indicate that they expect to have more arrests as the investigation continues.
