Hospital Administrators Should Go To Jail For This One

Dan Frith

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I could not believe the story when I first read it.  Hospital administrators failed to report a sexual assault of a patient to the police.  You have got to be kidding me!

Police were called to Healthcare-Osborn Hospital in Scottsville, Arizona on Jan. 14 by a security supervisor reporting a sexual assault of one of the hospital patients.  The officer assigned to the incident discovered that a complaint was reported to the hospital on Dec. 12, 2007, over one month earlier.  The officer discovered that between the time it learned of the incident and the time of its report to police, the hospital staff had been conducting what was described as an "internal investigation" into the incident.

Susan G. Livengood (associate vice president); Shelly M. VanVianen (nurse manager); Patricia Crellin (a psychiatrist) and Madlyn Costantino (a rehab coordinator) were each charged with one count of failure to report assault of an incapacitated/vulnerable adult.

Hospitals are used to hiding what really goes on in their facilities from their patients (and their lawyers) and their habit and practice carried over into hiding the facts behind a criminal attack.  I hope someone serves some jail time for this one!