Three outside experts in patient treatment at psychiatric wards have agreed to serve as advisers for the University Medical Center.
Their assignment follows three alleged sexual assaults by a former employee in addition to misuse of restraining devices in the psychiatric unit.
University of Rochester Medical Center staff members Glenn W. Currier and Carole Farley-Toombs will team with Gail Wiscarz Stuart of the Medical University of South Carolina.
They will work with the hospital's chief clinical officer, Pamela F. Cipriano, for the next six to eight weeks to review the hospital's quality of care, effectiveness of administrative systems and changes in institutional support needed to improve the quality of psychiatric services.
"We want to take advantage of the expertise of persons who are in position to assess our processes and ensure we are using those best practices that allow us to provide the very best care to our patients," said Leonard W. Sandridge, University executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Cipriano will coordinate the experts' visits and work with hospital faculty and staff to review and implement suggestions for improvement.
The team of experts has two main goals: "To suggest additional measures for behavior management that could achieve an effective, safe and restraint-free environment, and to assure that the University program of psychiatric services meets accepted standards of medical and nursing practice," Sandridge said.
At Sandridge's request, Anita Smith Everett, inspector general for Virginia's mental health system, also will provide an educational session for hospital physicians and staff. She will teach positive medical practices she has observed in other state facilities.
Following two alleged sexual assaults in the spring by former hospital employee Rudolph T. Johnson Jr. and reports that psychiatric restraints were being used improperly, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services put the hospital on immediate jeopardy status.
If problems in the psychiatric ward had not been remedied by July 3, the hospital could have lost its ability to accept Medicare payments, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of its revenue last year.
The actions taken by the Medical Center to address those problems have been successful, Cipriano said.
"However, we believe there will always be a need to review our practices and identify other improvements we might make for tong term effectiveness," she said. "This is true for psychiatric care as well as other hospital services." The Medical Center also is facing a lawsuit from six former employees who were fired after Johnson's May 15 arrest.
Johnson, the employee who allegedly sexually assaulted patients, had been hired with a known criminal record of drug use.
It was later discovered that the May 15 arrest came two weeks after University police began investigating Johnson in connection with a late April rape complaint that came from the same ward.
The hospital has since decided to fire all employees who had been working six months or less and had been convicted of felonies in the past.
The six former employees claimed their rights of due process were violated when they were abruptly fired May 29.
The plaintiffs are demanding to be reinstated at their old jobs with back pay.
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