Washington State: Western State Hospital’s CEO abruptly resigns

Washington State: Western State Hospital’s CEO abruptly resigns


Andy Phillips resigns as CEO.

"Andy Phillips, the chief executive officer of Western State Hospital, resigned Friday, effective immediately.
Thomas Shapley, a spokesman for the state Department of Social and Health Services, said agency officials would not answer questions about the reasons for Phillips’ resignation, why it was effective immediately or whether the departure was voluntary.

Phillips has run the state mental hospital in Lakewood since 2004. The facility has about 1,000 patients and 2,000 employees.

The hospital will be run by Richard Kellogg, the state mental health division director, until Sept. 2. Then Connie Wilmot, chief operating officer at Eastern State Hospital in Spokane County, will become acting CEO at Western State, Shapley said."

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March 2006- Childrens discharged her due to age "for long term care" During this time there were people from the state interviewing the employees asking them about work environment safety.(a year later the article declaring it an unsafe place came out, I shook my head at why no one heeded warnings from me?) They did this as I sat and listened, as the staff assigned to my daughter was being kept in the "line of sight". The staff that was working with my daughter had just got the job and had told me he was nervous about saying anything for fear of losing his job. When I wrote to the Governor, I gave the state a list of employee requests: 1. get therapists in there 2.we need more staff at all times .The staff were paid 9 bucks an hour and needed a high school diploma and 3 weeks of training to get the job they told me.

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Andy Phillips parked his car right in front, in the CEO designated parking space below my daughter's ward window of Western State Hospital when she was there for 3 weeks in March 2006. I spoke with him about moving my daughter across the short road to another state facility for teens as an exception. I got no where with these people. I witnessed the violence, and my daughter having a sexual assault attempt, where staff had to yank the man off of my daughter right in front of all of us. I started parking in the CEO's parking place. Every attempt to point out what I was told on the day she arrived: "Can she say no to sexual assault? we have sexual predators on this floor." fell on deaf ears until I wrote a letter directly to the Governor of Washington, a woman. Within 3 days that letter was in the hands of the ward director, and everyone else who needed to see it and she was discharged to my care.

Wildly psychotic and loaded up on 30mg of Zyprexa, Lithium,Haldol, 300mg of Bendryl, and more...we went down the elevator. My watch stopped at 5:30pm that day as we rode in the elevator.I got her out front and there was Andy Phillips. He asked me if I needed help, when she was pacing wildly and talking to voices--psychotic-- worse ever. He opened the car door so she would get in the car."Is she a patient of one of our wards?", Andy Phillips asked. "Yes she was, she was on Ward C-2, your "best one in the building" according to staff. He just stood there. (in other words she was discharged sick, but safer at home than in that place; which resulted in 10 days of hell that spring at home that I could write a book about).

About a year after that and a year after my letter that also complained of safety of staff due to being assaulted by patients, and lack of funding, lack of staff to patient ratio, an article came out that exposed the safety issues at Western State Hospital.
The place isn't safe for anyone to be. Patients, staff or visitors.

I was used as staff so my daughter could go outside to play basketball and the others could smoke. This happened because in the evening 2 staff for 50 or so patients doesn't leave anyone minding the store when one (my daughter) had a line of sight assigned(she had to be in their sight within 10 feet at all times 24 hours a day).

I phoned Richard Kellogg, and left him a voicemail several times a year later to discuss the violence at Western State Hospital, his position indicated as one to phone in the news article at the time.

As with all of these things, people and agencies look the other way.I'm not going to even ponder why Andy Phillips resigned.

I want everyone to know though that stories like this, are part of my life of the last 3 years and if I could erase any one of the stories it would be the one that includes her stay at Western State Hospital.

My daughter was destined to be sent there last October 2007 by a local hospital who told me "poor prognosis" and "no hope". I took them to court and won. She hasn't been back. I know patients who were her roommates that were not as fortunate. This is the only place in the area designated for "long term care" if on medicaid. If I had millions of dollars she never would have been discharged there. So I went against the system.

Every so often since last October, I telephone the doctor who wanted to discharge her "no hope" to Western and tell him what she's doing, how she is succeeding and she is in their face defying what their "prognosis" was.

Every time she wakes up not locked up is a day of victory over that. The zoo, the outings are all icing on the cake.

Where hope does not reside?

Inside the brick walls of Western State Institution.
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*note: I received a letter of apology in the mail after that in 2006 from the director of the ward.--(A discharge plan just should never ever involve a hospital where the Governor released my daughter and the director apologized for the unsafe care she received!)

More:

soulful sepulcher: May 2007: Western State Hospital and violence.