Medication Nation

http://www.sacbee.com/editorials/story/1129960.html

Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, August 4, 2008
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A18

Three hospitals in Sacramento form the psychiatric safety net for people in crisis. It’s a loose net with big holes largely because of the performance of Sierra Vista Hospital on Bruceville Road.

As The Bee’s Todd Milbourn reported Tuesday, Sierra Vista has one the worst patient mistreatment records of the 147 acute psychiatric hospitals licensed in California.

The hospital has piled up 111 violations since 2004. Three patients have died because of lapses by Sierra Vista doctors and staff since 2000, according to court records and government documents that Milbourn unearthed.

Follow up:

The most recent death involved Steven Grant Burton, a Camino man who expired at Sierra Vista in February after the hospital failed to provide him a respirator he needed.

Because of such lapses, Sierra Vista has received two $25,000 state fines in the past four months. It’s the only licensed acute psychiatric hospital to have received that penalty.

This shoddy performance deserves an explanation from Joey Jacobs, president of Psychiatric Solutions Inc., the company that owns Sierra Vista and another local psychiatric hospital, Heritage Oaks.

So far, however, officials at Psychiatric Solutions and Sierra Vista have declined to comment. That should leave this community to wonder: Is the parent company doing anything to improve staff training and improve care as it racks up record profits?

If the company continues to stonewall, local hospitals should think twice before referring patients to Sierra Vista. Because of shoddy care received by a veteran at Sierra Vista, the Sacramento VA Medical Center has stopped sending patients there. Perhaps Kaiser Permanente should, too.

The state’s public health director, Dr. Mark Horton, should also scrutinize Sierra Vista’s plans to treat patients in a new $8 million wing. While this region needs more capacity to treat people in crisis, there is no reason to allow those people to receive care that endangers them.