The 130-bed facility is the only psychiatric hospital in the District and is the go-to facility for adults and adolescents who are involuntarily committed after a visit to the ED or physician evaluation.
According to a recent lawsuit, an unidentified patient was held at the facility for four days and physicians allegedly falsified her mental health records and refused to give her access to a phone. The lawsuit said that the plaintiff had an argument with her soon-to-be ex-husband and left her home to cool down. Her husband called the police to report she was suicidal and falsely claimed she had a specific psychiatric diagnosis. Police responded, and she was taken to a 24-hour behavioral health crisis center. There, the lawsuit said, she spoke to a physician for less than five minutes was transferred to a psychiatric hospital for a seven-day involuntary commitment on the decision of a physician she hadn’t spoken to.
At the hospital, a resident psychiatrist described her as calm, cooperative and possessing good judgment and awareness. But the hospital allegedly falsified a “safety risk assessment” to commit her, which would allow them to bill for the maximum amount of revenue from her health insurance, the suit said.
She asked to call an attorney and was told the phone on her unit did not work. She received no treatment and had no meaningful interaction with staff members for two days, the suit said, but a physician who met with her for a few minutes made progress notes that described her as disheveled, paranoid and having suicidal ideation.
On the fourth day in the hospital, she used a hospital worker’s phone to call a public defender and secure a judge’s order to end her commitment. After that, a physician reported her suicidal ideation “suddenly disappeared” and falsified the time to make it appear the decision was made before the judge’s order, according to the lawsuit. Her discharge summary said she was offered therapy, daily treatment meetings, exercise and outdoor access, but the lawsuit claimed none of these services were offered.
The lawsuit alleges that the hospital and its corporate parent, King of Prussia, Penn.-based Universal Health Services, violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, the D.C. Human Rights Act and the patient’s constitutional rights to privacy. The suit seeks unspecified damages for the plaintiff and certification of a class of thousands of patients involuntarily hospitalized at the facility.
Universal Health Services did not respond to requests for comment.
In the past five months, the city’s behavioral health department has reviewed 600 cases, mostly of involuntary admission to the hospital, Wayne Turnage, deputy mayor for health and human services, told the Post. The city plans to issue updated hospital regulations this summer expanding the District’s authority, he said.
Universal Health Services hospitals have come under fire in recent years for similar lawsuits. In 2020, one of its Georgia hospitals agreed to pay $122 million to settle claims that it billed for medically unnecessary inpatient behavioral health services. In December, a lawsuit alleged that more than 100 minors were sexually abused at one of its Illinois facilities.
Universal Health Services is the largest operator of private for-profit hospitals in the country, with more than 400 facilities in the U.S. and U.K.