A Napa State Hospital patient brutally assaulted a staff member Saturday, sending the 60-year-old therapist to the hospital with multiple skull fractures.
It is the second serious attack at the Napa facility since Sonoma Valley Hospital contracted to provide acute care to Napa State Hospital patients four months ago. In October, staffer Donna Gross, 54, was strangled to death on the Napa grounds.
SVH officials said then that they would review security procedures regarding Napa patients at the Sonoma facility.
“I will not allow, at this hospital, anything that would put our staff or patients at risk,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Cohen.
The alleged assailant in the Dec. 11 attack has been identified as Sean Bouchie, 24, who was booked into Napa County Jail for investigation of felony battery.
The assault came as the two were walking outdoors, according to hospital spokesperson Debbie Moore.
“Napa State Hospital immediately added additional measures for escorting patients about the grounds,” Moore stated in a press release. “The incident will continue to be investigated by hospital police. The staff member has been transferred from a local hospital to another facility.”
Cohen has stated that the security conditions at SVH are completely different than on the Napa campus, where patients can move about the grounds freely.
The acute care contract stipulates that no SVH staff member will interact with a Napa State Hospital patient without a NSH employee present. NSH is responsible for transporting patients, and providing appropriate security personnel to accompany them at all times.
I’m all for treatment for all patients but the idea of Sonoma Valley Hospital taking in patients like this who are clearly a danger to the community and workers and surrounding patients is unacceptable.
The short-sidedness of the Hospital to make a couple $bucks today on these dangerous patients and lose my business and many others like me is a HUGE mistake.
My two children were born in Sonoma Valley Hospital, we’ve visited the emergency room twice and my wife had orthopedic back surgery but I am telling you with these last two dangerous attacks I will rethink ever utilizing this Hospital again and that includes for simple things like bloodwork.
I urge the Hospital to reconsider its position there is no way a few dollars is worth the risks to our Hospital workers and patients and the future lost revenue will be far more than you gain in this short term from Napa State Hospital patients.
As an alternative can’t we send Doctors over to their onsite facility on a rotating basis where they have significantly more protections, control and safety measures rather than bring them here?
In April 2008 the DOJ informed the Department of Mental Health that they needed to staff more officers. They reported, “Finally, there is a shortage of hospital police officers and Special Investigators across DMH facilities…This situation is serious and must be reversed to achieve compliance.” DMH has done nothing to address this critical shortage of Hospital Police Officers and the result is chaos and carnage. Staff members who have been attacked need to demand better security – even if it means filing a law suit against the Directors of DMH. you can find the DOJ report and quotation above by conducting an internet search of “Atascadero State Hospital Report 4” and then reading page 14.