State-run psychiatric hospital can't recruit enough workers as Pa. risks violating federal

[TexasTowelie]

State-run psychiatric hospital can’t recruit enough workers as Pa. risks violating federal requirements


HARRISBURG — A state-run psychiatric hospital with a long history of struggling to employ enough workers is now so short-staffed that it risks violating federal requirements for patient care, Spotlight PA has learned.

In an emergency request, the Department of Human Services said Torrance State Hospital in western Pennsylvania was operating short-staffed essentially every day because it can’t recruit enough aides, and doing so could put funding for the hospital in jeopardy.

An outside expert who reviewed the department’s request to hire a staffing agency said its description of conditions at the hospital raised serious questions about risks for both patients and staff.

“If my kid was working there, I would be really concerned,” Joel Dvoskin, a psychologist in Arizona and a former president of the American Psychology-Law Society, told Spotlight PA.

Read more: https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2020/12/torrance-state-hospital-staffing-federal-funding-risks-coronavirus/