Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140449
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The state police will "open a case and look into the allegations," the official said Wednesday. Larry Floyd, acting special agent in charge for the state police, would not say whether the investigation will be limited to areas of the 33-building campus where patient abuse has been documented.
The allegations were first presented in a memo last month to Del. Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, by a hospital employee.
Neither Morgan nor police would identify the employee, who fears her colleagues would harm her if she is identified. The woman agreed to be interviewed by the (Newport News) Daily Press on condition of anonymity.
State mental health officials have "looked into employee issues," at Eastern State, said James Bumpas, assistant commissioner of community and facility services with the state Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services.
Eastern State is the largest of the four general hospitals in the state mental health system. The 950-bed facility has about 935 patients.
Hospital Director David Pribble and Human Resources Manager Michael Wimsatt said they are unaware of employees drinking alcohol on the job or coming to work drunk. Pribble said he knows of no employee who sells drugs at work, though he has received anonymous tips over the years that some do.
He said he welcomes a police investigation of "the hospital and our practices."
Hospital Safety Director Fred Dolan said he was threatened by employees in the two buildings investigated by the state. The buildings house patients who receive long-term treatment.
"The guy said, `It would be in your best interest not to come out here after dark,' " Dolan said. "I said, `I don't have time for this.' "
He said the mental health department became interested in the employee problems at Eastern State in February, the month that four employees were fired for disciplinary reasons.
James City police arrested one aide for aggravated sexual battery after he was fired. Another was fired for sleeping in a patient lounge while a patient threw a chair through a window.
And two aides were fired for patient abuse; in one case, a patient in a wheelchair was bloodied, employees said.
The aide who sent the allegations to Morgan said a patient earlier this year asked to borrow $5 to buy marijuana from an aide.
by CNB