Sue green, Colorado News CollaborativeWhen Chris Osher, Gazette
The pattern of “serious and life-threatening” prescribing mistakes by troubled mental health centers in charge of treating 10 counties on the western slopes is according to the results of official investigations that state agencies have publicly withheld more. , Endangered many patients. 9 months or more.
Despite growing public concerns about Grand Junction-based Mind Springs Health and its mental hospital, West Springs, state officials have kept the June findings secret.
The problem was so serious that the state Medicaid contractor did not approve payments for newly admitted inpatients for three months until Mind Springs agreed to make extensive changes.
According to a state survey, nearly half of a sample of 58 outpatients at Mind Springs received poor quality care and were classified as having “serious and life-threatening effects.” Two people died, but the deaths were not directly due to the care they received.
“It has been investigated there and the public has the right to know if a problem is found,” said Wendy Wolf, a resident of Summit County whose son has been treated by Mind Springs for over seven years. .. “How else can I know that it’s safe to send my family or community there if it’s not open to the public?”
The Colorado News Collaborative has obtained a June 2021 letter written by the Rocky Mountain Health Plan. As part of that agreement, the company is responsible for investigating complaints about Mind Springs and two other Western Slope Community Mental Health Centers and holding them accountable.
Based on information received from whistleblowers within Mind Springs, the Rocky Mountain Health Plan launched its own investigation last spring.
A letter to the Chief Medical Officer of Mind Springs shows that a survey of the Rocky Mountain Health Plan last spring showed that nearly half of the sampling of 54 patients in West Springs received inadequate care. These patients were re-admitted to a psychiatric hospital from February 2020 to February 2021 within 30 to 60 days of their release.
Mind Springs opened a new $ 34 million psychiatric hospital in December 2018, doubling the number of inpatient beds from 32 to 64, and significantly reducing outpatient services. Double the rate, payment data will be displayed.
“Look at the data and see readmission rates and follow-up after patient discharge … Mind Springs Health continues to be off the charts at hospitals compared to other mental hospitals,” said David Mok of Rocky Mountain Health. -Lamme says. Planning executives said at a recent town hall meeting in Mesa County. “We are talking about some of the multiple readmission rates and follow-up rates.”
The company’s June 2021 letter stated that care was given to 52 of a sampling of 58 outpatients who were prescribed the high-dose tranquilizer benzodiazepine between February 2020 and February 2021. There are concerns about the quality of the disease, indicating that 28 (48%) received care. Poor people faced “serious and life-threatening consequences.”
An elderly Mind Springs patient who died later was discharged from West Springs Hospital after being prescribed high doses of benzodiazepines and other medications. Taking these medicines together can cause breathing problems. The man’s death was due to respiratory failure, but studies could not clearly relate it to inadequate care. Another patient who did not receive follow-up care after being discharged from West Springs died of an overdose of painkillers.
The Rocky Mountain Health Plan states that whistleblowers who are Mind Springs physicians are harming patients in Mind Springs facilities, including Medicaid management, prescribing practices, lack of peer reviews, and other treatment issues. After contacting the company about, we conducted a survey last spring.
The Healthcare Policy and Finance Department has published a letter detailing the findings of the Rocky Mountain Health Plan, knowing that its executive director, Kim Bimestefer, has obtained it in another way by reporters. After that.
Mind Springs has contracts with the state and faces mental health crises at the poor and Medicaid users, as well as at Eagle, Garfield, Grand, Jackson, Mesa, Moffat, Pitkin, Rio Branco, Root and Summit. We provide care to those who are. county.
At the summit, where the community is particularly vocal about dissatisfaction with Mind Springs services, authorities have persuaded residents to cancel their three contracts with Mind Springs and hand over new taxes to pay for alternative mental health services. , I noticed that the crisis management is inadequate.
According to records, Mind Springs has been under a corrective action plan for most of the past year, and the facility needs to improve its protocol 17 times to prevent similar life-threatening errors. Many of these changes have already been made, but Mind Springs is still finalizing some new protocol requirements.
According to a report from COLab in December, three state agencies overseeing community mental health centers began auditing in January whether Mind Springs did not provide adequate services to the general public. The health department has found “zero defects,” the record shows.
The Human Services Department has found only administrative issues. They released patients from the hospital without proper paperwork for continued treatment, as Mind Springs did not report 40% of serious cases such as prescription errors and injuries to the state within 24 hours. It extends to the pattern to be done.
This story was reported as part of the Colorado News Collaborative. Including this, there are more than 160 news media across the state.
