Dive Brief:
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Western State Hospital CEO Ron Alder was fired Tuesday, according to an announcement by Gov. Jay Inslee, following last week's escape of two committed patients from the psychiatric facility.
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The escape appears to have been the final straw, as the governor and the Department of Social and Health Services had already been discussing issues at the hospital, including failure to fulfill federal safety regulations.
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Cheryl Strange, who has previously worked at the state Department of Corrections and the state Department of Social and Health Services, will replace Alder. Strange comes from Health Benefits Trust for the SEIU 775 Benefits Group for unionized home healthcare workers.
Dive Insight:
Strange is tasked with effecting a "transformative culture change" at the troubled facility, along with other new hires from recent months: an operations chief, chief medical officer, and interim chief nursing officer.
The facility has been cited mutiple times for safety issues and threatened with federal funding cuts worth millions. Aside from the recent escapes, issues have included violence, a sexual assault between patients, and numerous safety risks, such as unlocked rooms. The escapees had spent months tampering with a window's bolts in order to open it.
“This team must restore morale so that all staff feel confident that they can bring issues to management’s attention without fear of retaliation, and work together to give patients the care that they need and that they deserve,” Inslee told the News Tribune.