State halts admissions to Arbour-HRI psych facility for unsafe conditions

November 29, 2013

A Brookline psychiatric hospital was ordered to stop admitting patients by a state agency because of what the state deemed to be unsafe conditions.

The Department of Mental Health conducted a surprise inspection of Arbour-HRI Hospital in Brookline on Oct. 24 and reportedly found a number of infractions. After that inspection, the department asked the hospital to submit a corrective action plan to address the deficiencies. That plan was submitted on Nov. 15, but it did not adequately address the issues, according to the state.

One of those issues was an incident on Sept. 4. The state did not immediately release details about the incident, but the TAB has filed a request for more information.

The order was first reported in the Boston Globe as part of a investigative series the paper did into Arbour-HRI’s parent company, Universal Health Services, and its repeated citations for understaffing and poor worker training at numerous facilities across the country.

The state eventually rejected Arbour-HRI’s plan and required Arbour to submit a new plan within 10 days. If the new plan does not address the deficiencies, the state will suspend Arbour’s license, according to the letter.

The state’s letter, written by Lizbeth Kinkead, director of licensing for the Department of Mental Health, states that the department received numerous phone calls from anonymous sources describing unsafe conditions at the hospital, as well as pictures showing the staff acting inappropriately and unsafe practices at the facility.

Before suspending admissions to the hospital, the state previously cut down the amount of patients allowed at the mental care facility, but that did not seem to curb the infractions, “raising an immediate and serious concern that patient safety and care at Arbour/HRI is substantially compromised,” according to the letter.

The hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: Ignacio Laguarda, "State orders Brookline psychiatric hospital to stop admitting patients," Brookline Tab, November 27, 2013.