On Sept. 23, two patients at East Tennessee Behavioral Health were in an altercation. When 61-year-old nurse Jan Allison tried to stop the fight, one of the patients pushed her to the ground. She was taken to Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center in Knoxville and died about a month later from complications from a hip fracture.
In December, Knoxville police opened a homicide investigation, however, the district attorney’s office declined to prosecute the man who pushed Ms. Allison because, “the death is without criminal intent, and the death did not occur in a proximate time connected to the actions of the defendant,” according to a letter acquired by WBIR.
The man who pushed Ms. Allison is now in a mental institution, WBIR reported.
Weeks after Ms. Allison’s death, the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the Knoxville, Tenn.-based hospital $6,000 for violations it found during a Nov. 1 inspection, according to the report. The hospital is a partner of Covenant Health, a 10-hospital system based in Knoxville, Tenn.
“Workers at this psychiatric hospital were frequently exposed to high instances of workplace violence when interacting with patients,” TOSHA’s report said, according to WBIR. “There were approximately thirty workplace violence incidents that resulted in injuries between 2022 and 2023.”
The agency said security was often absent on weekends and isolated hospital staff did not have panic buttons or communication devices to warn staff about incidents.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to the family of Jan Allison,” the hospital told Becker’s. “We work diligently to address feedback from our employees, the community, and regulators including the Tennessee Department of Labor and the Joint Commission.”
East Tennessee Behavioral Health said it would not comment further.