CRANSTON — The Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals will relocate Eleanor Slater Hospital’s psychiatric patients to the Roosevelt Benton Center to avoid a suicide risk revealed by a recent assessment of the hospital.
The hospital will remain open during the entire transition process. Patients will be moved from one facility to another once about $2.5 million in renovations at the Benton Center are finished.
The Joint Commission deemed Eleanor Slater Hospital unfit for accreditation in September due to aging facilities and construction that lent itself to ligature suicide risk. A ligature risk is anything which could be used to attach a cord, rope or other material for the purpose of hanging or strangulation. Ligature points include shower rails, coat hooks, pipes and radiators, bedsteads, window and door frames, ceiling fittings, handles, hinges and closures, according to Jenna Mackevich, BHDDH communications coordinator.
Officials were critical of the space in light of a nation-wide increase in hospital suicides, according to a statement by the BHDDH.
While long-term planning for the future of ESH was already underway, the Joint Commission finding required a more immediate move to ensure patient safety, the BHDDH said.
The Benton Center, vacated by the Department for Youth and Families July 31, presented a convenient option.
“We have found that operating one facility instead of two provides significant advantages related to safety and security, and we intend to remain in one building for now, as our population size allows. We support the immediate use of the Benton Center by BHDDH for Eleanor Slater Hospital patients,” said DCYF Director Trista Piccola.
The state’s Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance the $2.5 million to retrofit the Benton Building will come from previously appropriated capital funding sources. DCAMM estimates that patients will be able to move into the new facility in Spring 2018.
“There were a variety of factors (leadership, staffing, training, issues with the security system, etc.) that led to us to vacate the Roosevelt Benton Center and consolidate all of our youth into our Youth Development Center facility,” said Kerri White, DCYF communications director.
Since this consolidation on July 31st, DCYF has worked with DCAMM to address the physical plant needs at the Roosevelt Benton Center. It will be up to officials from DCAMM and BHDDH to survey the building and decide if other renovations are necessary to bring it into compliance for their patients, White said.
Additional infrastructure investments may be made at the Benton Center once patients have moved in. The investments will amount to a small fraction of the monetary loss the state would be facing if ESH lost its accreditation status, whereby federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid would be at risk, according to the BHDDH statement.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
