Maryland's Spring Grove Hospital Center sees increase in assaults on employees: 9 things to know

Spring Grove Hospital Center, a psychiatric complex in Catonsville, Md., has experienced an increase in patient-led assaults on employees, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Here are nine things to know.

1. A total of 68 assaults on employees occurred at the hospital from January through June, according to the report, which cites records obtained under a Maryland Public Information Act request.

2. For comparison, 35 attacks on staff reportedly occurred at the hospital in the final six months of 2016.

3. Some of the 68 assaults on employees took place May 19 and involved "spitting, kicking [and] breaking glasses," according to the report.

4. In the report, Patricia Watson, president of the union local that represents most nonnurse hospital employees, partially attributed the rise in assaults to what she deems as poor security.

5. John Robison, chief of psychiatric hospitals for the Maryland Department of Health, described the increase to The Baltimore Sun as "a blip in patient assault data." It "does not signal an unsafe place to work," he told the publication.

6. The rise in attacks on employees at Spring Grove comes as Maryland's state psychiatric hospitals have experienced a decrease in voluntarily committed patients and an increase in patients referred by courts, according to the report.

7. The report states the rise in attacks on employees at Spring Grove also comes after Baltimore Circuit Judge Gale Rasin ordered the state health department to staff 20 beds in a Spring Grove admissions unit. Maryland is challenging the order.

8. Judge Rasin described Spring Grove as "a hospital that is being deprived of resources and one that cannot meet its obligations," according to the report, which cites a court order.

9. Still, Mr. Robison told The Baltimore Sun, "I'm confident in saying an increase in patient assaults is not related to staff vacancies or staff morale."

Read the full report here.

 

 

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