New Jersey Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex) has called for a hearing next month in response to hundreds of alleged assaults by patients in recent years at Bergen Regional Medical Center in Paramus, N.J., The Record reports.
The senator wants to look at a newly revealed increasing pattern of violence at the facility. He also wants to address how private operator Bergen Regional Medical Center LP, which manages the hospital, spends tens of millions of public dollars annually and to review the care it provides for mentally ill and elderly patients, according to the report.
"There are potentially any number of areas of concern — taxpayers are covering the care for these patients, how are they being cared for and are they being cared for in a manner that meets the highest standards," Sen. Vitale said, according to The Record.
"Saying we're average or we're doing better doesn't give me any comfort when you're dealing with such an extraordinarily vulnerable population that depends on the state and this institution to care for them," he added.
According to the report, the senator plans to work with Bergen County, which owns the hospital and leases it to for-profit Bergen Regional Medical Center LP, "to address these issues and have a public discussion about what we can do to assist them."
Sen. Vitale's call for a hearing comes just days after The Record revealed that violence has reportedly continued at Bergen Regional Medical Center, even after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the hospital last year for failing to keep the workplace free of hazards, and for incorrectly recording workplace injuries.
Following a worker's complaint last August, federal officials said at least eight employees were victims of violent patients from Feb. 22, 2015, through June 12, 2015. Bergen Regional Medical Center is currently challenging the OSHA citation.
Now, it appears more assaults were reported in recent months at Bergen Regional Medical Center, which treats some of the most vulnerable patients — people debilitated by depression or dementia or battling a life-threatening addiction to heroin or prescription pain medication, according to The Record. The publication reports that in one three-hour span last December, law enforcement recorded four assaults that left two patients bleeding, an aide requiring X-rays and two guards with bite marks on their arms.
Officials at Bergen Regional Medical Center LP declined to comment to The Record on the law enforcement records and said they had not seen them. In an interview with the publication, they also pointed out attacks on staff have dropped more than 30 percent over three recent quarters — from 4.5 per 1,000 patient days in the third quarter of 2015 to 1.4 in the first quarter of 2016 — and injuries to staff are below national benchmarks. They did not provide The Record with numbers for total assaults during that period.
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