Washington ordered to pay $2M to staffers assaulted at psychiatric hospital

The state agency operating Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Wash., was ordered by a judge to pay more than $2 million to psychiatric ward workers assaulted by a violent patient who targeted women, Washington news source the Island Packet reported last week. 

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The patient attacked four female staff members who all sustained injuries, some of them debilitating, the publication reported Aug. 17. Their lawsuit claimed hospital supervisors and the state knew this patient had repeatedly attacked women but failed to provide them a safe environment.

The hospital was stripped of its certification and federal funding by CMS and lost its Joint Commission accreditation in 2018 after repeatedly failing health and safety inspections, according to the Island Packet.

 

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