State investigating alleged patient-on-patient sexual assault at Montana State Hospital

The state health department confirmed Tuesday it is investigating an allegation of a patient-on-patient sexual assault that occurred at the Montana State Hospital over the weekend.

According to an employee who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, the alleged assault happened around 11 p.m. Friday. When a nurse checked on patients at shift change, the nurse found two male patients in the unit’s TV room where one patient was sexually assaulting the other, according to the employee, who spoke to the nurse about the incident and relayed the information to the Daily Montanan.

The employee said police were called, and the hospital’s new administrator, Carter Anderson, was aware of the incident.

While Jon Ebelt, spokesperson for the Department of Public Health and Human Services, would not comment on the specifics of the matter, he confirmed the state was investigating, and that police had been called to the facility, as reported to the Daily Montanan by two staff members. “Due to confidentiality, we cannot comment on the matter at this point in time,” Ebelt said in an email.

Anaconda Police Chief Bill Sather and Deputy Police Chief Cody Hanson did not respond to voicemails Monday or Tuesday or an email about the incident by the time of publication.

“Apparently, someone did not shut the door to the TV room all the way and (the nurse) found the two patients down there,” the employee familiar with the incident said. The employee said patients are supposed to be supervised while in that area.

Friday’s incident is not the first patient-on-patient sexual assault in the Spratt Unit. When Danielle Lewis was involuntarily committed to the state psychiatric hospital in 2020, she earlier told the Daily Montanan that patients on the floor groped her chest and crotch. And in March of this year, a female patient was physically assaulted by another patient at the hospital, according to earlier media reports.

The recent assaults are part of compounding issues at the Warm Springs hospital, including the hospital’s inability to prevent deadly patient falls and implement a COVID-19 prevention plan. A February investigation of the hospital by the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare found the hospital was out of compliance with federal standards, contributing to the death of four patients in five months. As a result of the investigation, the hospital lost its federal funding in early April.

Last week at a legislative interim committee meeting, lawmakers reiterated their concerns about the condition of the hospital to DPHHS Director Adam Meier. Rep. Danny Tenenbaum, D-Missoula, and Rep. Ed Stafman, D-Bozeman, called on the department to take immediate action to remedy the hospital’s shortcomings.

In response to concerns, Meier backed up his administration’s systematic approach to addressing the issues, including hiring New York-based consulting firm Alvarez and Marsal, which signed a $2.2 million contract with the state to review the hospital’s operations and provide recommendations to the state. According to the department, Alvarez and Marsal consultants began their work on April 18 and met with a handful of stakeholders in the state and at the hospital, including staff, union representatives, and disability rights advocacy groups.

And DPHHS removed the hospital’s previous administrator, Kyle Fouts. Staff heavily scrutinized Fouts and alleged he created a hostile work environment.

Jack Griswold, employee union president at the hospital, said the reported sexual assault over the weekend was ultimately a result of low staffing numbers at the hospital.

According to a report from the Department of Public Health and Human Services, the overall staff vacancy rate at the hospital was 40% as of March 8. And the hospital has been hemorrhaging money by hiring contracted workers to fill vacancies. By December of 2021, contracted nurse assistants were billed for 16,000 hours in that month compared to just 2,000 in January 2021, a 700 percent increase, according to DPHHS data. As of March, the hospital was $7.4 million over its budget for the current fiscal year.

“The Spratt Unit is run by contracted workers … at the end of the day, a lot of these contracted workers are working multiple days with long shifts in a row, and it’s affecting their ability to work,” Griswold said.

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This article originally appeared on Great Falls Tribune: State investigating alleged sexual assault at Montana State Hospital