Officials say API has made progress. But the psychiatric hospital is still functioning with far fewer patients than the already modest 80 it is designed for, and now contending with operating during a pandemic.
A review of police responses to the Anchorage facility shows regular arrests of patients for behavior likely related to their mental illnesses.
Between a crisis that threatened the hospital’s ability to operate and an unprecedented state move to turn over management to a private corporation, API has been in the spotlight.
Some lawmakers have asked why the in-state provider was not considered for management of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute.
One of them testified at a hearing related to a lawsuit over the practice of holding psychiatric patients in jails.
Kevin Huckshorn of Wellpath discusses problems and solutions at troubled API and the importance of “trauma-informed care,” among other topics.
Wellpath Recovery Solutions has a new name, but the company’s previous iteration has a long and well-documented history.
Alaska’s only psychiatric hospital is under four separate “grievous letters of correction” from four different agencies.
As recently as Monday, investigators were back at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute and discovered another “immediate jeopardy” situation.
Anthony Blanford and John Bellville of the Alaska Psychiatric Institute refused to sign letters of resignation in the transition between governors.
API's chief executive, Ron Hale, deputy health commissioner Karen Forrest and the director of the state division of behavioral health, Randall Burns, are all no longer working at the state, a spokeswoman for the state health department said Friday.
The report, by Anchorage attorney Bill Evans, is the latest probing of problems at the Alaska Psychiatric Institute, which has faced staffing shortages for years.
Patients, staff, doctors and the former CEO express safety and care concerns at Alaska’s state mental hospital.
Workers in the Alaska state mental hospital were injured hundreds of times, often seriously, because of inadequate staffing and training.
