Virginia psychiatric facility gets another bad review

February 26, 2011

The Hancock Geriatric Treatment Center has 10 days to submit a plan of correction, and the remedies must be complete by the 45th calendar day after the inspection, which ended Feb. 11. State officials believe they can correct problems identified during the latest inspection “in pretty short order,” said Health and Human Resources Deputy Secretary Keith Hare.

Inspectors have found more problems at a state-run psychiatric facility for the elderly in Williamsburg.

Hancock Geriatric Treatment Center lost its federal certification in September, which has cost the state in excess of $800,000 a month in federal funding. Some of the violations cited in the most recent inspection included dirty walls and floors.

In many instances, there was no documentation that residents were receiving the proper medication, nutritional supplements or food ordered by a doctor. Also pressure wounds and the health status of some residents were not properly documented. Discharge papers also were incomplete in some instances. The inspection also found that residents were not always properly assessed in terms of what their abilities were.

The center has 10 days to submit a plan of correction, and the remedies must be complete by the 45th calendar day after the inspection, which ended Feb. 11.

State officials believe they can correct problems identified during the latest inspection "in pretty short order," Health and Human Resources Deputy Secretary Keith Hare said.

Gov. Bob McDonnell has proposed $5.2 million in state spending to cover the loss of federal funds.

The state also hired an outside consultant to review operations at Hancock and has increased staff to improve the facility.

A 150-bed facility at Eastern State Hospital, Hancock was the subject of a series of critical inspection reports over last spring and summer related to patient care problems, among them a failure to protect patients from injury or abuse.

Those reports revealed that some incidents weren't investigated as promptly as they should have been, and others weren't classified as abuse despite evidence suggesting otherwise.

A separate evaluation from the state Inspector General's Office released last summer also highlighted problems at Hancock, a facility opened in 2008 for mentally ill senior citizens.

At the same time the state is struggling to get the geriatric center in compliance, it's also under pressure to improve treatment options for people with intellectual disabilities.

A Justice Department investigation recently found the state's training centers are in violation of federal disabilities laws, and that more residents need to move into community-care settings. The state must step up the pace of discharging people from those facilities or risk a federal lawsuit.

McDonnell has already proposed $30 million in funding in the budget as a "down payment" for improvements to the system.

Source: "Va. psychiatric facility gets another bad review," Hampton Roads, February 26, 2011.