Canyon Ridge Hospital
Posted on 11/22/04 - will index in search engines by 12/15/04 for wide coverage Canyon Ridge Hospital
Administrator: Mr. Raymond Verugo, Interim Chief Executive Officer
Immediate Release: November 22, 2004
Revised on November 23, 2004 Rev-D
Written by Kathi Stringer
Director of California Network of Mental Health Clients
Riverside County Quality Improvement Committee (QIC) Participant
Member of the Western Regional Mental Health Board for Riverside County
Owner of Kathi's Mental Health Review
http://www.toddlertime.com
Webpage for this article: http://www.toddlertime.com/advocacy/hospitals/canyonridge/canyonridgehospital.htm
Jump to "Hospital Scam for Profit?"
Side note: On intake, charge nurse Alice indicated that because I wasn't religious, it was "the reason that I wasn't well." More on this later.
Another story about mental health causing people to be mentally ill due to poor training or lack of high energy management. One such case happened in the recently reopened Canyon Ridge Hospital in Chino California. Before you check in, check this out and bring a vast array of coping skills. You will need them to deal with some of the power tripin' staff or untrained staff. Additionally, I attempted to have an objective discussion with 'their patient advocate' (employed by the hospital) and she seemed to have a bland lack of concern for corrective action even under the motivation of this being posted on the Internet. It was as though she was mentally dismissing my statements as I was speaking to her. I tried to bargain a trade for her getting things into shape to avoid the public story, but she appeared to be unmoved. Such is life with these type of personalities. Well, as they say, "Here's the rest of the story."
Hours after of admission (involuntary) at Canyon Ridge Hospital...
After I snapped out a dissociative state, I wanted to get in touch with my family to give my whereabouts. Staff refused to assist me in this and it was very frustrating to say the least. That of course set the tone for the entire one-day admit. The following encapsulates typical patient care at Canyon Ridge Hospital. I filled out the grievance after an intensive hunt to find the obscure forms. Here it is:
| Date: 11/21/04 Complaint: I asked charge nurse (Alice) for working phone access. She directed me to a pay phone. I indicated that my friend's cell was collect blocked. I requested that she inform my family of my whereabouts. She said she "don't have time for that." Since I was transported out of county, I do not see this as an unreasonable request. I asked Alice for a grievance form. Alice refused and said I needed to step off the carpet and exit the hallway and enter into the dayroom. Her tone and direction came across as a threat of seclusion if I refused. I left the hall. As I sat there I wondered about if I could find more resources to alert my family. I found many documents framed in 8x10 picture frames. I saw a blank grievance form that also appeared to be framed. Also, the poster-sized patient's rights were severely sized down into 8x10 which made the writing hard to read. With difficulty, I was able to make out the 1 800 number for the capital patient's rights. However, when I tired dialing this number, twice, I got a phone recording indicating the pay phone was not configured to put through this 1 800 patient's rights phone number. Next, I looked for the local patient's rights phone number but none is posted in this Canyon Ridge facility. Wherefore, I had No Access To Outside Patient's Rights e.g. (San Bernardino Chief Bill Dodge). Further, the grievance forms are put in line formation on the wall with the other framed documents. This causes confusion as to what is 'handout' and what is posted for information. Certainly, from my perspective I thought "None" was handout since the vast majority of the information was in 8x10 frames. And the grievance handouts were also in an 8x10 Plexiglas with a small slit at the top which made them look attached to the wall and "Not" a handout. And, there was no addresses or facility identifying information on these grievance forms. If I were to take it home with me and mail it, I would not have any information where to send it. And, Per Title 9 and W&I code, there was No Self-Addressed Envelopes for the grievances. None exists. I would have to request the information in direct violation with regulations. And, looking at these grievance forms, it is Unclear what department, responsible party/person gets the grievance forms. That said, the following Corrective Action is requested in part to be in compliance.
Last, none of this would have came about if Alice had offered a desire to help, because I needed to notify my family of my whereabouts.
Kathi Stringer |
First thing the next morning (11/22/04 -today) I got in touch with Kris Strande who represents herself as a "patient advocate". In speaking with Kris Strande, she appeared to be advocating for the hospital more then the patient (she is a hired hospital employee and this creates a conflict of interest). The bias seemed obvious. When I discussed the violations with her, she said, "You are splitting hairs." When I asked Kris Strande to advocate for me and dial the 1 800 number to the State Capital Department of Patient's Rights and verify the connection was impossible, she refused. When I asked Kris Strande to advocate for me and admit the hospital was out of compliance, she seemed concerned for the hospital and not her client. I was getting the picture. Actually, I'm not stupid and figured this would happen.
Kris Strande felt she needed to remind me that I was a patient in the hospital in not an advocate. I assured her that I would happily relinquish the position of being an advocate if the hospital staff could take 'the professional' role, and until there was evidence of this, I would continue in self-advocacy.
Lets go over some concerns and view how Kris Strande 'advocates' for the patient. Better yet, lets put that aside and look into the following analogy for a perspective that is too close for comfort.
Lets use the Canyon Ridge Hospital apparent setup as our model.
Now, that said in the above complaint, lets try and make sense why this could/would happen. Lets suppose we wanted to run a profitable hospital that would filter and block all complaints as much as possible from getting to the Department of Patient Rights to protect our civil rights. Looking "bad" and getting caught mistreating patients could cut into our profits. By doing a little conniving and planning, we could reduce our risk for state Licensing and Certification citing our hospital operation, and we could reduce our risk from getting too much attention from the County and State Department of Patient's Rights. Alright, as our first priority, lets make a list to funnel all contact away from the 'outside' contacts, or at least make it difficult for any outside department to listen to the patients denial of rights except our paid employees passed off as "patient advocates". And, while we are at it, lets try and ditch the complaint forms so the patient will tire and give up looking for them. Lets get busy and make our list.
- For starters, lets reduce the State poster describing patient's rights (2 feet by 2 1/2 feet) down to 8 inches by 10 inches. This way the writing will be distorted and very small print. The strategy, as we all know, the side-effects of anti-psychotics and medications can blur a patient's vision and make it nearly, if not impossible to read the required information.
(Make information hard to read.)
- Of course, there is a blank spot in the State information to identify the local Department of Patient's Rights phone number. Since we don't exactly want to make it easy for them to contact anyone but us, lets not put the local number where most might find it. Yet, to have an alibi that we did put some sort of outside number for the patient on the reduced poster, lets go to our next step.
(Hide local patients rights number)
- Lets screw up the phone so it doesn't work with certain 1 800 number as a safety precaution, lets configure the phone so the patients cannot call the State Capital Department of Patient's Rights, the 1 800 number. Or, if it is not working, lets not fix it. When they try the 1 800 number, a recording will come on stating that the phone is not setup to complete this type of call and to contact your service provider. The patient ought to blow their stack after a series of rejections like this.
(Block contact with the State Department of Patient's Rights)
- Now suppose the patients get all upset since they are frustrated trying to call someone. You know darn well they might insist on a complaint form. That could present a problem too. It looks bad if we have to log a lot of complaints. So, lets hide, or at least camouflage the location of the complaint forms. Check this out, we can put an array of two rolls of 8" x 10" framed documents on the wall next to the nursing station. This way we can inundate them with information which makes it harder to see the complaint forms. And, lets put the complaint forms in a very thin, and clear Plexiglas about 8" x 10" same as everything else on the wall so it will look like a sample complaint form and not a holder for many complaint forms. Mixed in with all the other 8 x 10 documents can fool the eye and camouflage where the forms are. I actually came up with this when I was looking at one of those 'find the object' in children's' magazine. It's quiet a clever idea.
(Hide the complaint forms)
- But just in case the patient is determined to get a complaint form, just ignore the request as though it never happened and demand the patient exit the hallway and go into the group room to 'calm down.' This may come off as demeaning, like a childish 'time out.' As many of you know, this is a great tactic for setting-off the patient, and if we can get them to do that, we can put them into seclusion or even better, seclusion and restraints. This will improve our position that the patient is impulsive and delusional about any claims they have about us and support our position the patient never requested a complaint form but has a problem with going off, is out of control, and mean spirited. With this logic, we can turn this whole thing around and make the patient look like the psycho one, not us.
(Set off the patient to weaken their 'claims' about us.)
- However, just in case the patient can keep their cool during all our tactics, let's appoint one of our hospital employees to be disguised as a 'patient's rights advocate.' Since it is our hospital, we can give anyone any title we want and justify it. It will sure confuse the 'already confused' patients as to who their 'real' advocate is. I mean think about it, most, if not all patients won't put together that their 'advocate' is our paid employee that looks out mainly for our interests, and not theirs. We are going to have to hire someone good though that can handle our best interests and not the patients. That is, someone that can read between the lines. They will have to know how to pacify the patient and 'lose' the complaints and paperwork if necessary under the guise "hmmm...that's funny, I don't remember you giving a written complaint."
(Mislead the patients by telling them you are their advocate with their interests paramount)
(Lose the paperwork and any oral knowledge of the event if necessary)
- One more thing, just in case the patient is persistent, and we have no choice but to give them a complaint form, lets not put any identifying information on the form. Let's not put the name of our hospital on it, or our address, or any person responsible for resolving this complaint. If fact, let's not put our phone number on the complaint either. This way, when they get home and want to mail it in, the patient won't have zip and we will improve our chances the patient may give up at that point since no information about us is on the complaint.
(Delete identifying mailing information and responsible department)
- Oh. Do not, and I repeat, do not make self-addressed envelopes for the complaints available on the unit for easy visual access. Hide them. Put them behind other papers or clutter if you have too. If possible, put only "one" of them on the floor in a different unit in the hospital. This way, we can say the patient is "splitting hairs" when they claim no self-addressed envelopes are available in the hospital. So what if they are behind double locked doors at times, or a couple of hundred feet away in a completely different unit/section of the hospital. The point is, we can claim we were in compliance even though the complaint forms and the self-addressed envelopes are hundreds of feet apart. Oh yeah, one more thought, just in case the patient stumbles onto our complaint forms, the fact they need to ask for an addressed envelope will alert us that the patient is up to something. Of course by law we can't overtly do anything punitive to the patient, but covertly we can do plenty of things to punish the patient. When the patient asks us for an envelope, this will be a sort of 'heads up."
(Prevent patient from having identifying self-addressed envelopes).
- By-the-way, since we are required to give patients the "Rights for Individuals in Mental Health Facilities" handbook, whenever possible, put it in the patient's storage locker (only we have a key) without showing it to them. You know, out-of-sight, out-of-mind. And since we are required to put the phone number of the local patient rights department on the back of this handbook, don't do it. Leave it blank. Additionally, remove the staples in the handbook in case the patient does happen to get a hold of one. This way the pages easily fall out and get lost or disarranged. You know, information is a commodity, and the less the patient knows, the less we are accountable.
(Hide Patient's Rights Handbook)
(Remove staples weaken handbook and improve chances of losing information)
- Now lets review our I.D. badge policy that we dare not put into writing. If the patient asks you their name, don't tell them. And, if you feel you must give them your first name, absolutely do not give them your last name. Try and get in the habit of twirling your I.D. badge around backwards, or tuck in half in your shirt, or on your belt under your shirt so the patient cannot see your name. If the patient asks you for the name on the badge, just tell them you are not allowed to give it out. You can cite safety reasons for this even though you are not the one getting abused but rather the patient. Remember, the more difficult you make it for the patient to identify you, the more confused they appear from their escalating frustration, which in the end supports our position they are out of touch with reality when accusing us of misconduct. As an added bonus, our attitude about refusing to identify ourselves may set them off and we can go into Plan "B" with use of restraints. Remember, the more crazy we can make out the patient to be in our progress notes, the better our defense.
(Hide your name badges and don't give out your name)
- Most important of all. If a patient begins quoting the regulations and the law, by all means, explain to them our hospital policy is different. If the patient persists and explains that the law and regulations set by legislation is a higher law then hospital policy, just ignore them and see if you can set them off once more. You see, by playing dumb, you are implying the patient is the stupid one and additionally, this strategy is a great invalidation tool. For those with past abuse issues, this ought to trigger them into rage, and we might get to use our Ace card of Seclusion and Restraints.
(Explain that hospital policy is the highest law of the land)
- To help keep our authority intact that we are the sane ones and not the client, use stigma reinforcing responses to the patient's allegations like, "Yes, I understand that is your perception of it." This a subtle way of unconsciously reminding the patient they are distorting their version of the events and strengthen our position once again that we hold the correct version. As you know, we can get away with saying this to beaten down patients. However, in a different environment if some sales person pulled a stunt like that with me at Norstrum's Department Store when I was making a complaint about poor service, I would pull my account so fast it would make their head spin. I suppose that is why Customer Services agents wouldn't usually be stupid to prefix a response to poor service with "Yes, I understand that is your perception of it." Lucky for us patients usually come to us without healthy self-esteem and we can freely and consistently use this useful technique as to their 'perception' of it.
(Reinforce stigma statements to weaken the patient's self-confidence of their complaint).
- And, if you happen to think of anything else to help our hospital escape accountability, just add it on to our list.
Well folks, this is how things looked today at Canyon Ridge Hospital. If you want more information, click on the links below for more identifying documents. I will add regulations later to support this material.
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Hospital type:
Psychiatric
Operated by:
Corporation
Total beds: 59
Administrator: Mr. Raymond Verugo, Interim Chief Executive Officer |
Kris Strande
Patient's Rights Advocate
5333 G. Street
Chino, CA 91710
Canyon Ridge Hospital
Contract with Riverside County and Canyon Ridge Parent Company
Going to Extremes Not to be Identified in Hospitals.
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Canyon Ridge Hospital Link:
http://www.psysolutions.com/facilities/canyonridge/index.html
Aimee Mendoza MSW