Of Tom Beltlach, and Random Notes, Dedicated Reader Visits: Dateline August 02, 2018.

Random Notes: "8K Visitors And Growing", (September 28, 2012).This number, since the April, 2012,  founding of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse, has now advanced beyond 100,ooo.  

While on this day alone, Thursday, August 02, 2018, we have already seen 147 total dedicated visits specific to a range of previously published articles, at lease one dating back to May, 2012 ("Cory D. Nelson's Disconnect: Former South Dakota Corrections Employee Finagles His Way Into Mental Health Care Despite No Proven Calling For The Job.").

Tom Betlach. Director.
Arizona Health Care Cost
Containment System.

August 02, 2018. Thanks in large part to highly increased visits to this blog project over the last thirty days, which our staff feel safe in presuming have arisen due to the founding author being formally voted onto the Arizona State Hospital's Independent Oversight Committee (formerly known as the ASH Human Rights Committee), the current number of formal dedicated" visits (of eighteen or more minutes as per the blogspot.com format)) as of early August, 2018, has eclipsed to: 

100,000

And counting.

And as to that status, with direct respect for the Tom Betlach's  refusal to grant my presence as a voting member of this committee, in defiance of the committee's decision in context, be aware:

This specific issue 

is far from over,
just more data to 
add to the docket.

Fair warning, Rat Bastards. Yet again: We write. About you.

IN CLOSING: Outside of his freakishly large nose, we know little to nothing about Tom Betlach, who is the current director of the Arizona Healthcare Cost Containment System. But said Mega-Schnoz aside, it is obvious that Betlach's rejection of the democratic process by which I have been chosen to be a member of the Arizona State Hospital's Independent Oversight Committee (ASHIOC), flows directly from the success of this blog project in relation to  the exposure of corruption in ASH's administrative office (Cory Nelson, Donna Noriega, Jennifer Alewel, etc. [circa 2012-2015], and Aaron Bowen, Dr. Steven Dingle, Lisa Wynn, and William Bugby, etc. [current]); as well as in that of the state's Department of Health Services, Greg Honich, Cara Christ, etc. [also current]). 

There is no justification in denying me this position. None, that is, beyond the fear that these people have about being exposed for just who they are. In explicit relation to their across the board lack of ethos, and the risks they face should individuals like me- persons 100% dedicated to serving the interests and welfare of the ASH patient community- be granted further opportunity to challenge this corruption, most definitely underlies my being denied this opportunity, the efforts they are willing to go to in context have repeatedly been exhibited for well over the last six years; most exemplified, perhaps, by former-since fired ASH CEO-ADHS/BHS Deputy Director Cory Nelson, who was accused via staff testimony of destroying public records circa 2014, in criminal response to an action taken under the authority of the Freedom of Information Act.  

So, these Rat Bastards are trying to disqualify me on what basis? This blog project has always been produced in accordance with state and federal law (if not, we would have been sued by these people long, long ago), and in alignment with the constitutional right of any American to report issues occurring in violation of the public interest. 

We the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse have never directly advocated for any individual patient-consumer at ASH, have not in any way violated law or policy in association to the role of the ASHIOC, or otherwise been engaged in conduct whereby I am not deserving of this role. The plain fact is that I am nothing more or less then a former ASH patient-consumer with established experience and knowledge about how deeply endemic the wrongdoing at ASH has been over the last 6-10 years. I am, as such, exactly of character- proven character-  in terms of the objectives of the Arizona legislature, which did enact the statute by which the ASHIOC exists. 

This is precisely how ugly these people are: Highly entrusted as the ones most directly responsible for the interests and welfare of ASH patient-consumers, continually mis-conducting themselves in a manner consistent with the known history of the operation of ASH (wherein on no less then four separate occasions since the late 1990s, federal oversight and intervention has been necessary on the basis of identified wrongdoing and shortsighted management). 

Persons who, as such, are engaging in outright suppression of any/all well intentioned efforts designed to preserve and protect the rights of ASH patient-consumers. We have seen this in recent months by the efforts of Christ and Honich to limit the  function of the ASHIOC, documented interference of that function by Bowen and Honich, and outright personal  attacks on several longstanding ASHIOC members. And no this, the rejection of my willingness to serve a voting member of ASHIOC. 

It's that bad. In the meantime, I will continue to attend and document future meetings of the ASHIOC, and share any issues that I know to be of valid concern in this blog. 

Fact be known, I all but terrify these people. For good reason. As former-since fired ASH CEO Cory Nelson put it away back in 2014, "This is what gets people like me fired!" I gave Nelson ample opportunity to clean up his crap, while I was still at ASH, and more then a few times in the earliest of producing this blog project. But did Nelson listen, or take me seriously? No, he did not. (And see where that got him.)

I have likewise given Christ and Bowen the same degree of early warning over the last three+ years. Are they listening? No they are not. 

It's their coffin. We'll be happy to supply the nails and even wield the hammer. So be it.   

Could not make it up- any of it- if I had to. 

paoloreed@gmail.com

RE: Dr. Cara Christ. Dr. Aaron Bowen. Deceivers of Truth.

                                                       "Things are much better now."
                                                      Dr. Cara Christ
                                                    Current Director
                                                 Arizona Department
                                                  of Health Services,
                                                      2015-present.

"This is the state hospital. What do you expect?"

Dr. Laxman Patel

Late January, 2011.

INTRODUCTION: One patient is stabbed by another patient with so violent a known history that he should have been closely monitored at all times. All aspects of this incident are part of the documented record on the date it occurs. Subsequently, ASH administrators in direct complicity with ADHS officials omit that record from an annual report about the conditions, care practices, and general operation of ASH. 

As stated in yesterday's article "The Arizona State Hospital's ANNUAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR 2017. Of Ongoing Mistruths in the Official Record and Complicity Between Hospital Administrators and State Employed Officials In Furthering Corruption In Arizona's Public Health Care System.", we now have emerging documented evidence to the effect that the administrators of Arizona State Hospital (ASH) are engaging in shrouding the truth specific to patient safety (or lack thereof) and associated record keeping in terms of patient on patient violence. And they are doing so in complicity with the director of the state's public health care agency.

As per law and policy, this 2017 report was produced by the Director of Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS), Dr. Cara Christ, in direct cooperation with the Chief Executive Officer at ASH, Dr. Aaron Bowen.

THE FULL 2017 ASH FISCAL REPORT IS PUBLIC RECORD. YOU CAN FIND IT AT:

www.azhds.gov/documents/director/agency-reports/ash/2017-ash-annual-report.pdf

PAGE EIGHTEEN AND THE SECTION "PATIENT ON PATIENT ASSAULTS" IS WHERE ONE CAN VIEW THE FACT THAT THE OCTOBER 03, 2017, STABBING OF AN ASH PATIENT WAS OMITTED FROM THE REPORT ITSELF. 

-------------------------------

FACT: 

On October 03, 2017, patient A.W. at Arizona State Hospital (ASH) was viciously stabbed six times by another patient. The aggressor in this matter has a known record of very violent behavior, enough so that he was to be closely observed at all points in time when not in seclusion. In recent history, formal petitions had been filed to ensure that this individual was even more closely monitored. But despite these varied facts, this individual had opportunity to not only acquire a weapon, but also to viciously attack one of his patient-peers, nearly killing him.

Had patient A.W. died, in fact, this would stack up to just one more preventable death caused in part by the ineptitude and criminally negligent misconduct of some ASH staff, who are "guided" by the authority of ASH administrators, including but not limited to long time Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Dingle and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Aaron Bowen.

Incidents of this magnitude occur due to insufficiencies specific to available staff, which in itself is one form of administrative-medical negligence. Such shortages in staff put both patients and staff alike at grave risk of possible harm. Some staff, that is, as in only those who work in direct proximity to patients, namely staff technicians and nurses. While Hospital administrators spend there time in off-limit office areas that patients have no access to. As such, administrators and their immediate counterparts- psychiatric staff- bear little to none of the risk that lower ranking staff have to contend with on a day-in day-out, 24/7 basis. This is the core reason for why staff shortages in these facilities are the norm, the simple fact that the issue poses risk to all but the ones most responsible for ensuring that staff meet the required numbers, as per federal law. Abject disregard for the safety of patients and direct care staff.

And as much as many folks today still believe that mental hospitals are inherently dangerous, akin to corrections facilities (prisons and jails), I contend that in contemporary terms, in direct relation to the simple fact that we are talking about hospitals, it is highly irresponsible for state employed officials to further the myth that mentally ill persons across the board are inherently dangerous. Likewise, such hospitals require a sufficient number of security staff and other like resources that can maintain reasonable safety with reference to patients known to be dangerous to others. 

It is ridiculous, as well, for anyone to claim that it's reasonable to expect that state mental managed health facilities inherently have abusive staff, as Dr. Laxman Patel put it to me early on in my time as an ASH patient (2011-12): "This is the state hospital. What do you expect?", when I chose to report to him the fact that some staff were regularly engaged in verbally and psychologically abusing certain members of my patient-peers (more vulnerable to abuse type patients). 

FACT:

As also discussed yesterday, the 2017 Annual Fiscal Report specific to the operation of has a section (found on page 18 of that report) required to provide factual data specific to patient on patient assaults. This data is critical to the Hospital's ability to provide a reasonably safe environment, by specifically identifying all such incidents regardless of the severity of these assaults. In the sub-section October 2017, that period of time when the attempt to murder patient A.W. occurred (I feel that when someone opts to stab you six times, chances are good it is their intent is to kill you), Bowen and Christ willfully chose to omit this incident from the record. In criminal law and procedure, such lying by omission is lying, bottom line. The staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse would welcome either these people to challenge this standard of law, but as per history of ASH and ADHS, we know that they won't.

What we also know is that directly due to the willingness of these highly entrusted state employees to manipulate or otherwise alter the facts that are to be included in this Fiscal Report, any number of other aspects of the data contained in the Report may well be flawed, And what we also know from the still recent history of ASH, such administrators and officials engage in this nature of mis-truthing as an unlawful means to avoid due oversight and accountability.

More specifically speaking, circa 2013-14, former ASH CEO Cory Nelson allegedly destroyed some proportion of ASH's  public  records (this allegation was made by one of his staff when interviewed during a federal investigation of ASH), records that had been lawfully requested for review by the Phoenix area ABC news affiliate, KNVX Ch15. What's even more disturbing is that ADHS's then Director, Will Humble subsequently promoted Nelson to a higher position in the ADHS construct. I recall this period of time well, and feeling that it was although Nelson was rewarded for his known lack of character.

Cory Nelson
Former since-fired
Deputy Director, Arizona Department
of Behavioral Health Services.

Cory Nelson, of course, was summarily fired in early 2015, along with his previous underling at ASH, Donna Noriega, a ADHS staff attorney, Jeff Bloomberg, and a handful of other entrusted state employees working at ASH and for ADHS. While Humble hastily resigned his position in the weeks immediately preceding these firings.

Still today, this is how it goes at ADHS, and at ASH, as well. Patent lying and willful deception designed to maintain the sub-standard conditions and care practices at ASH. These patterns exist as well in the ADHS Office of Grievances and Appeals (OGA), which is required to ethically manage the process of investigation specific to patient generated reports about the issues needing attention at ASH. 

I attest to the fact that in terms of grievance filings that I provided this office, staff at OGA routinely failed to abide by a range of terms included in Arizona's administrative law; time line requirements, for example, which are designed to provide consumers of ADHS various services (including the patient-consumers at ASH) timely response(s) to such reports. This practice was obviously oriented towards the hope that ASH patients such as I would let these reports go, on the basis of overtly inept bureaucratic misconduct.

This failure of state employed health department officials to acknowledge the significance of patient generated grievances is another form of administrative-medical negligence, and has direct relation to the cover up of the attack on patient A.W. No matter how critical the nature of such grievances are, Hospital administrators and their supervisory staff in the Department regularly participate in suppressing all elements of the issues most at stake, including patient safety, criminal abuses of patients by staff, medical ineptitude displayed by ASH psychiatrists, and on the list can go. And no matter how serious the nature of certain incidents of violence are, these same state employees willfully do whatever they have to in order to keep such incidents secreted away and out of the public eye.

It's that bad. I could not make it up- any of it- even if I had to.

------------------------------

IN CLOSING: I have been interviewed by more then one interested party in recent days, persons with some nature of vested interest in addressing the ongoing substandard conditions and care practices at ASH. This is far from the first time, and I have always been happy to do so. I do so in the interest of the patient community at ASH, at least some of whom are personal friends from my time there. 

If only Cara Christ was capable of sharing this dynamic in her given attitude about the patient community at ASH. When she took over the helm of ADHS in spring 2015, I immediately contacted her, and encouraged her to keep a close eye on the realities at ASH. Several months later, after she had appointed Dr. Aaron Bowen as CEO at ASH, Christ contacted me, and stated in an email "Things at ASH are much better now." At the time I was willing to believe her, and I was willing to stand in support of her presence in context. A position I maintained for many months, as a matter of good faith respect. 

The Author, 2012.

I know better now. It's 2012 all over again. For it is readily apparent the Christ is taking the same risks that her predecessor took circa 2014, with no regard for the implications as they apply to the welfare of ASH patients. And it is too late for her and her brood of incompetents to presume I will not do whatever I have to see that they are all held accountable. I have contacts in the federal government from back in the proverbial day when I first took on the issue of seeing that ASH patients be provided reasonably optimal care and treatment. I am still in touch with David Biscobing, and at least one newer contact in Arizona media. And I am as well prepared as I have even been in terms of doing good work in my own right, in context. We warned them....

MORE LATER. AS ALWAYS.

paoloreed@gmail.com

The Arizona State Hospital's ANNUAL REPORT FISCAL YEAR 2017. Of Ongoing Mistruths in the Official Record and Complicity Between Hospital Adminsistrators and State Employed Officials In Furthering Corruption In Arizona's Public Health Care System.

All to the direct detriment of patients at Arizona State Hospital. 

Dr. Cara Christ
Current Director
Arizona Department
of Health Services.

INTRODUCTION: 100% consistent with the corruption identified circa 2013-2015, we now have emerging documented evidence to the effect that the administrators of Arizona State Hospital (ASH) are engaging in shrouding the truth specific to patient safety (or lack thereof) and associated record keeping in terms of patient on patient violence. Such violence most often occurs in state managed mental hospitals due to staff shortages, wherein individuals known to be violent have opportunity to attack and gravely harm non-violent patients; while the goal of administrators in issuing untruthful information in context has everything to do with avoiding due oversight and accountability. This form of corruption in medical terms amounts to patent negligence and outright operational malpractice.

As with all such matters, the 2017 ASH Annual Fiscal Report is required to provide factual information specific to a wide range of operational conditions and related care practices at ASH. Included as such, this information is required to provide data about patient on patient assaults. But as shown in the following, ASH administrators, in patent complicity with state employed health department officials (including the departments [ADHS] current director, Dr. Cara Christ), are willfully engaged in omitting factual data about otherwise documented patient on patient violence, in violation of law and policy.

It should be noted at the outset that ASH receives overall direction from the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Aaron Bowen, who reports to the Director of ADHS, Dr. Cara Christ. On this basis, there should be no disconnect between Bowen's knowledge base about the internal affairs at ASH and the awareness of those affairs of Christ. But just as former since-fled ADHS Director Will Humble chose to praise the overtly corrupt ASH administrators circa 2013-2015- namely since-fired ASH CEO Donna Noriega and then Deputy Director of the state's Department of Behavioral Health Services, Cory Nelson, right up until their proverbial deaths as employees of ADHS- we are today witnessing the same degree of complicity, administrative negligence, and utter denial of corruption at ASH in relation to Christ's role at the helm of ADHS.

The ASH CEO, meanwhile, directs the various "leaders" of ASH, who comprise the Executive Management Team (EMT). The Executive Management Team oversees hospital operations, establishes administrative policies and procedures and directs ASH planning activities. Each one of these individuals are responsible for the care needs and treatment of ASH's patient community, and as such, are further required to provide factual, evidence based information specific to the general operation of ASH. 

This very necessarily includes all information reflected in ASH's 2017 Annual fiscal Report.

The members of EMT as follows: 

 Aaron Bowen, Psy.D., Chief Executive Officer 
 Steven Dingle, M.S, M.D., Chief Medical Officer 
 Michael Sheldon, M.P.A, Chief Operating Officer 
 Debra Taylor, M.S.N., R.N., Chief Nursing Officer 
 Lisa Wynn, B.S., Chief Quality Officer 
 Margaret McLaughlin, M.S., Chief Compliance Officer 
 Shanda Payne, L.M.S.W, ACPTC Director 
 Levada Coker, C.P.M., Human Resources Assistant Chief 
 William Bugbee, Chief Security Officer 
 Justin Lepley, C.P.M., M.B.A., Chief Financial Officer 
 Carol Hasper, B.S.B.A., P.M.P., Senior Project Manager/IT Services


And now, from the annual report itself, page 18 (eighteen):

Patient on Patient Assault, 
October, 2017: 0 (zero)

Shame, shame, shame. Lies, lies, lies. 

The plain fact is that, on October 03, 2017, patient A.W. was stabbed six times by patient R.M. This incident is obviously of critical nature. Patient A.W.'s very life was in grave condition following this attack, and only surgery that A.W. underwent later on the same day saved him.

Each and every Hospital employee listed above is fully aware of the truth in this matter, and as such, are overtly complicit in misleading the public in order to avoid due oversight and accountability in relation to just how and why this near tragedy occurred. Patient A.W. is deserving of the same level of safety that ASH staff possess. If it was a staff person who got stabbed, patient R.M. would be subject to criminal charges, and there is no way in hell that the record would be hidden. But due to A.W. being affected by mental illness, and reliant on the shortsighted and discriminative conduct of ASH doctors and administrators, this incident has been covered up. It's that simple, it is that plain.

For the administrators of ASH to lie about this matter is unconscionable to the Nth degree. Knowing as they do that one of the patient-consumers at ASH was nearly killed due to negligence and associated administrative incompetence, and to then lie about it in terms of this fiscal report, which is designed in part to provide the public- including patient families who have a reasonable expectation in terms of the care needs and safety of their kin- with clear awareness of the quality of care at ASH adds up to criminal misconduct.  

This also calls into question the overall data included in this report. Given the mentality "What happens at ASH stays at ASH", which is overwhelmingly evidenced yet again by this specific issue, there is no way for we the public to know just what is really going on there. I can attest via my experiences at ASH in 2011-12 that this precisely how Hospital administrators such as but not limited to Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Dingle want it to be. Ideally in their twisted minds so as to get away with abusing or otherwise violating the rights of the patient community as a whole.

Pending, thus, requests under the Public Information Act for all related Hospital records specific to violence, and other like issues that I fell safe in assuming these people are seeking to hide from the public. This has occurred at numerous points in time over the last few years. Notably, ASH and ADHS were sued on the basis of the Hospital's administrators refusal to release such records when Phoenix's ABC news affiliate, KVNX Ch15, sought to investigate this exact same nature of corruption. 

Be interesting to see if things go any differently today. They didn't get away with it then, and they won't at this time. I promise this.  

----------------------------------------------

Bottom Line. These people are furthering the long standing corruption at ASH, in defiance of the term "Psychiatric Excellence" and the assurance of  Dr. Cara Christ that ADHS and the Arizona State Hospital is committed to the following:

 ADHS' Vision: Health and Wellness for all Arizonans 
 Mission: To promote, protect, and improve the health and wellness of individuals and communities in Arizona. 

The Arizona State Hospital has the following Vision and Mission Statements:  Vision: Quality, Compassion, and Excellence in the Provision of Psychiatric Care. 
 Mission: Provide evidence-based, recovery-oriented, and trauma-informed care to the individuals receiving care at Arizona State Hospital in order to facilitate their successful transition to the least restrictive alternative possible. 

BULLSHIT!

--------------------------------------------------------

IN CLOSING: Take a close look at several of the liars who were involved in the known corruption at ASH prior to the last scandal there. These people are, in my mind, sociopathic in their willingness to put persons disabled by mental illness at grave risk of harm. It is in their eyes, in my opinion, the dark sided aspect of their criminal nature. Absolutely Machiavellian, after birth of Beezlebub, bottom feeding bureaucrats with no understanding of what it means to be ethical. 

Will Humble
Former ADHS Director
2009-2015

Cory Nelson
Former since-fired
ASH CEO,
Deputy Director
ADHS Behavioral
Health Services.
2012-2015

Donna Noriega
Former since-fired
ASH CEO.
2013-2015.

And I can not in sincerity believe that persons such as current ASH CEO Dr. Aaron Bowen, the Hospital's Chief of Security William Bugbee, or any other member of ASH's Executive Management Team are of better character then these former employees of ASH and ADHS. This issue is shocking, stomach turning, and most definitely deserving of federal oversight at the soonest possible time.  

Sucks. For the patients, who are deserving of optimum health care and treatment as consumers of ADHS so called services. 

And for the Rat Bastards who are deserving of going down just like each and every other such villain I have identified over the years in this blog publication. Whatever comes your way, you all have it coming.

And don't say we haven't warned you for the last three years. 

paoloreed@gmail.com  

Dr. Cara Christ. Please.... While you still can.

Dr. Cara Christ
Current Director
Arizona Dept. of Health Services
("current")

Out of basic respect, and in the interest of tact and diplomacy, I am willing to ask one more time for the director of Arizona's public health system (ADHS) to simply do the right thing. It is her job, her responsibility, and entirely consistent with ethics, so there should be no need for a citizen-consumer to make such a suggestion. And yet, there it is. That said, I will leave it to her to go about taking action while she still can. 

Before things go sideways. Based on a range of new information provided to the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse, it looks as though a relative storm of attention is about to hit the operation of Arizona State Hospital (ASH). I am not making this up. I mean it. 

Since day one, from the time I filed my first grievance as a patient at ASH away back in spring 2011, my intent has been good faith, non-conflict based, and 100% out of concern for the welfare of the ASH patient community, as well as any staff there not involved in the crap that we all know has gotten ASH into serious trouble with the federal government no less then four times in the last couple of decades. 

Historically, this approach has made no difference whatsoever to the ones who repeatedly rejected the merits of my various grievance filings in my thirteen months as an ASH patient. Indeed, rather then take the safest route available to them with respect for not going down the wormhole, ASH administrators and their immediate supervisors etc. in ADHS chose to risk their jobs, face the possibility of criminal prosecution, litigation, and on that list goes. 

All to the direct detriment of the patient community, as a matter of standard practice.  

Not a whole lot more to say right now; I would hope my point is clear.

MORE LATER. AS ALWAYS. 

paoloreed@gmail.com   

Evidence to the effect of Montana State Hospital's inability to get their shit together. Just like Arizona State Hospital. Literally.

INTRODUCTION. In late 2013, and again in 2014, the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) completed several lengthy and in-depth investigations of the Arizona State Hospital (ASH), Phoenix, AZ. The subsequent CMS report(s) determined that ASH was operating in violation of a wide range of federally mandated regulations by which ASH is licensed to operate, including the facility's failure to maintain required patient to staff quotients (ratio). Consequently, CMS issued a "Notice of Jeopardy" wherein ASH's license to operate was at risk of being terminated. As per standard protocol, CMS granted the Hospital to get it's shit together within and allotted time period. At the conclusion of that time period, in early 2014 CMS determined that this had not occurred, leading to more direct federal oversight that did lead to the summary firing of no less then seven individuals directly directly associated with the operation of ASH, including the Hospital's CEO, the Department of Health/Behavioral Health Services' Deputy Director, one state employed attorney, and several lower ranking staff at ASH itself.   

In recent articles, the staff of PJ Reed The Arizona State Hospital and Patient Abuse and Montana State Hospital. Montana's Forgotten Suicides have described the fact that in fall 2016, CMS was notified that the Montana State Hospital (MSH) was failing to maintain required patient to staff quotients (ratio). Just like ASH in 2013-14. And just like ASH, MSH is still today failing to get its shit together. 

Below are several mainstream press articles specific to MSH history in context, circa January 2017 to the present. 

It should be noted that reporter Holly Nichols interviewed me at MSH in December, 2017, and again in late January, 2017, following which she published the first of a series of articles about these issues. While in 2013, an investigative reporter named David Biscobing of the Phoenix area ABC news affiliate, KNVX/Ch15, contacted me through this blog publication with a request to collaborate in order for him to initiate his own formal investigation of ASH. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

State Psychiatric Hospital Changes Policies After Lockdown

Associated Press. May 31, 2018.

The Montana State Hospital has changed some policies and plans to increase staffing and improve training after a unit of the psychiatric hospital was locked down in November due to a lack of staffing and two patients were unnecessarily held in seclusion.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Warm Springs Assaults blamed on chronic, 

pervasive staff shortages. 

HOLLY NICHOLS. Lee Newspapers. March 08, 2017

A recently recently released federal inspection details why the Montana State Hospital at Warm Springs, which is home to civilly and criminally committed patients with mental illness, was at risk of losing its federal certification for twelve days in January. Documents from the Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which certifies parts of the hospital, say "chronic, pervasive staff shortages" led to the attacks. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feds find state hospital put patients at risk,
almost terminated agreement.

HOLLY NICHOLS. Lee Newspapers January 27, 2017.

HELENA – Montana State Hospital, the state’s publicly run psychiatric facility, was set to lose its federal agreement in February because of what’s called an “immediate jeopardy,” a situation where the hospital’s noncompliance with federal regulations was considered serious enough to risk death or serious injury to a resident.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

IN CLOSING: Collaboration between mainstream and independently produced media is an increasingly common feature to investigative journalism today. The advent of the internet, the emergence of blog formats (including blogspot.com), and the realization that independent investigations of issues critical to the public interest are useful to mainstream media outlets, are granting the public a much firmer understanding of exactly what goes on in shadowed corners that, for the most part, have historically been out of sight, out of mind. This most definitely applies to state managed mental hospitals such as ASH and MSH.

On countless occasions in the history of this publication, I have stated that it was never my intent to become a central source of information about the realities in state hospitals. This is still the case. When I showed up at MSH in spring, 2015, I had no predisposition to the effect that I would run into the same degree of shortsightedness that ASH is so well known for (and that's putting it nicely). Likewise, I had no desire to fall into the same level of dedication about the affairs of the MSH patient community that I was compelled to engage in on behalf of my former patient-peers at ASH.

But there you go, right? Different meadow, same cow pies. 

paoloreed@gmail.com

Of Current Thugs on Security Staff at The Arizona State Hospital.

James Roger Forney
Twice convicted
sexual child predator,
former ASH security guard,
now in prison.

DATELINE JULY 04, 2018:

William Bugbee, Randy Lewis. You are not above being criminally charged. You are common thugs, not legitimate law enforcement officers, and in my book, dirt. Dirt. Little different from Forney, other  then still getting away with your shit.

Fair warning. Once, and once only. 

paoloreed@gmail.com

How It's Done II. RE: Bringing about oversight and accountability when state managed mental hospitals are being mismanaged and in violation of licensure, federal and state law and policy.

THE LETTER

RECAP OF THE JULY 02, 2018 ARTICLE: 

As discussed, when I was hospitalized at the Montana State Hospital (MSH) in late spring, 2015, I filed several good faith grievances about a rogue staff psychiatrist named Dr. Colby Wang, on the basis of his abusive use of language, his threat to keep me hospitalized there at his leisure regardless of my state of health, and other such features to his behavior and conduct.

Upon being readmitted to MSH for the 2nd time in late August, 2016, Wang willfully, directly and personally interfered with my admission in direct response to the grievances that I had filed in 2015, which I deduced  to be retaliative in nature. Retaliation of any kind is patently forbidden by my protections specific to the Americans With Disabilities Act. I thus filed a grievance about the issue immediately after this act was imposed upon me. 

In subsequent weeks, MSH administrators refused to acknowledge my grievance as having any merit. This refusal was shared by the Hospital's own in-house "patient's lawyer", Craig Fitch.

(Colby Wang was summarily fired in early October, 2016)

I thus took it upon myself to take close note of any issues occurring at MSH that I felt to be wrongful, unlawful, or otherwise harmful to the wellbeing of the MSH patient community; and went so far, in fact, as to give Fitch fair warning as to this intent.

In October, 2016, during my second month of being readmitted to MSH, it became readily apparent to me that the Hospital was experiencing graphic staff shortages, an issue that I knew to be in violation of the federal standards that all such state mental hospitals are required to adhere to, and which I also knew posed grave risk of harm to patients and staff alike.

I initially suggested to my patient-peers on the MSH Resident Advisory Committee (RAC) that we as a group submit a report of this issue to the governor of Montana. During the RAC meeting where I brought this up, an administrative staff person wrongfully interfered (RAC is supposed to function with no direct intrusion of MSH staff) with this suggeston and insisted that we take the issue to the Hospital CEO, Jay Pottenger.

Jay Pottenger

Chief Executive Officer
Montana State Hospital
2016-present.

At a subsequent RAC meeting, Pottenger refused to acknowledge the significance of this issue, effectively declaring that the matter was out of his control.

I was thus compelled to send a personal reporting of the matter to Montana Senators Ron Lehi (R-Hamilton) and Debbie Barrett (R-Dillon). I did so in a handwritten two page letter, shown below. 

In late November, 2016, not long before my pending discharge, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)- which licenses the operation of MSH- initiated a drawn out formal investigation of all aspects of the MSH operation. This investigation culminated in a final report that identified over one hundred eleven (111) violations of the standards by which MSH is licensed.

After giving MSH administrators a period of time to correct these concerns, CMS was forced to issue a Notice of Jeopardy on the basis of these concerns not being addressed. (This is precisely what happened at the Arizona State Hospital.)

As stated, I am not able right now to enlarge the images above, but will be able to in short order. For now, suffice it to say that this letter included all details specific to the process by which I was compelled to draft it, as well the significance of the issue of staff shortages, which I knew not only were occurring in violation of federal standards, but which also poses grave risk of harm to staff and patients alike. Low ranking staff, that is, and not the fat-cat bureaucrats like Jay Pottenger, who traditionally are so disconnected to the realities of what really goes on in these places, that they hardy really give a damn when information of this sort is provided to them.

But they do this at their own risk. As proven by the most recent trouble that Arizona State Hospital experienced (emphasis here on most recent, because it sure as hell isn't the first time), and by the ongoing developments at Montana State Hospital, which is even today- more then eighteen months after they were sanctioned by the federal government- yet to be resolved.

So be it.

IN CLOSING: There is no just cause for any administrative member of state managed mental hospitals to ignore well intentioned efforts of patients who express concern about their experiences. But just as with my time at the Arizona State Hospital, where none of my good faith, well drafted as per protocol grievances found any degree of resolution, these patterns of abject negligence occur away up in Montana, too. And very likely, throughout the nation. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. 

It is clear to me by now, as a man affected and disabled by serious mental illness who has accrued three full years in more then one state managed mental hospital, that the sole reason for why this occurs has to do with my status as a man affected and disabled by serious mental illness. Were such issues to be raised in a non-mental health care facility, private, county, whatever, there is no way in hell that hospital administrators would risk ignoring such matters, on the basis of liability, if nothing else. 

But in state managed hospitals, where a pervasive attitude of "What happens in (Vegas) stays in (Vegas)" exists as a matter of standard practice, such issues are swept under the rug, with no regard for the rights or care needs of the involved patient, etc. Virtually all individuals hospitalized in these places are disabled under state and federal law. It follows, thus, that this is patent discrimination on the basis of disability, and nothing less. 

Even in this day in age, it is that bad. I attest to it, and have only one choice:  To continue reporting it all in my writing and reporting in this blog, and elsewhere. I and my staff refuse to relent until reform oriented towards addressing these issues meets our satisfaction, most specifically in a context of getting state managed mental hospitals out of the habit of defying medical standards once and for all. 

MORE LATER. AS ALWAYS.

paoloreed@gmail.com

Random Notes.

I have been reviewing my various notes from the ASH era, where I spent thirteen hellish months, January 2011-February 2012. I spent a lot of my free time there (and at ASH, there is a lot of that) engaging in what my ASH therapist referred to as "Voluminous note taking" (which he entirely supported), leaving there with over thirty basic journals full of such notes, only a bit of which have actually been part of this blog. 

One loosely done daily note reads as follows, and is representative of the lengths that Cory Nelson and his goon squad- including CMO Dr. Steven Dingle so far as I am concerned-  were willing go to in the hope of thwarting my advocacy efforts at the time.

It relates how on December 05, 2011, as I sat alone, minding my own business at one of the outside "on the mall" tables, a scrawny little tech who I never knew the name of led this large Mexican man, I think his name is Carlos or something, right up to my table and sat his ass down not five feet from where I was sitting. 

This guy "Carlos" was a forensics patient with a very violent history including at ASH (he had supposedly broken more then one patient's jaw over his years there), very notorious to all patients with extensive experience there, who was only seen on the mall being escorted by at least two large male techs while restrained at both hand and foot level.

First thing I noticed was that Carlos had no restraints of any kind on. I shit you not. My initial words were, "Do you mind?" This scrawny ass tech just looked at me, no response whatsoever. So as quickly as I could, I gathered my things and moved way the hell way from them. 

I contend in all sincerity that in this specific case, they were willing to see that I be gravely injured in order to get their way, shut me up, maintain the status quo. Same idea as when I was wrongly, summarily transferred from the appropriate treatment unit at ASH for my care needs- which my referring doctor in Tucson had personally ensured I would be placed on based on my established behavioral characteristics and related diagnosis, depression zero violence- to one of the most violent. This occurred not only in defiance of basic medical ethics, but even the Hospital's own protocol. 

I was provided at the time with a letter rubber stamping this transfer that was signed by both Cory Nelson, and Steven Dingle. In a subsequent response to the grievance I filed in context, Nelson's verbatim words were (I have that document here on the table next to me as I write): "It is within the purview of the Chief Executive Officer to move patients from one unit to another at the discretion of the Chief Executive Officer." 

Therein: They run that Hospital more like a prison then a hospital, in fact. Rat Bastards the whole lot of them. Evil incarnate. 

And as our last full article relates, I was all but identically retaliated against by one Dr. Colby "Since fired!" Wang on the same basis- for exercising my right to disagree with his conduct, and for filing grievances in context- this at the Montana State Hospital, 2015, 2016. 

Could not make any of this shit up if I had to. (No reason to.)

paoloreed@gmail.com