Involuntary admissions of psychiatric patients to a Ventura hospital were suspended this week following repeated violations, with state officials saying they would monitor compliance and members of a community advisory committee saying they should have been informed months ago of the potential closure.
Loretta Denering, interim head of the Ventura County Department of Behavioral Health, imposed the suspension until Dec. 5 at the private Vista del Mar Hospital. But Denering suggested Monday that the 87-bed hospital could reopen those admissions if he made the necessary changes.
“Vista del Mar has been presented with a plan if they choose to accept it,” she told the Ventura County Behavioral Health Advisory Board at a meeting in Oxnard.
She did not disclose the plan’s requirements to the lay board that assesses mental health needs and makes recommendations on funding. The board includes customers, family members, public officials, nonprofit leaders and others.
But county officials released a copy of the document Tuesday after the Star requested it. The 15-page plan requires numerous steps to ensure staff are properly trained, the physical facility is safe, laws are followed and patients’ rights are protected.
Officials must show Denering that the hospital meets all of the plan’s requirements for the suspension to be lifted, county spokeswoman Ashley Humes said.
Denering revealed the suspension in a letter to hospital CEO Colton Reed a week ago, citing two dozen problems centered on negative results, failure to meet requirements and “chronic and continuing” errors since through at least 2021. Denering said she was suspending the hospital’s authorization to admit involuntary patients based on these problems and a “lack of progress” by hospital officials to correct them .
Denering said she will go to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in December to confirm the decision. The suspension could be extended until the issues are resolved or she could recommend that the hospital’s authorization to admit those patients be terminated, she said.
Vista del Mar is no longer designated as a facility authorized to treat involuntary patients under a landmark California law called the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act.
The law sets out limited conditions under which patients can be held against their will because they risk harming themselves or others or because they are seriously disabled.
Vista del Mar officials declined to respond to repeated calls from the Star for comment on the suspension.
Vista del Mar offered involuntary treatment to adults as well as youth ages 12 to 17.
The county’s only other inpatient psychiatric unit, at Ventura County Medical Center, involuntarily admits adults, but not adolescents. That means youth in that age group must travel out of the county to receive hospital care, according to the order.
County officials said they expected more patients to go to hospitals outside the county and an increase in use of local outpatient crisis units during the suspension. Patients can receive intensive services for less than a day in crisis units, potentially avoiding hospitalization in the county where advocates have long complained about a lack of inpatient beds.
With the suspension in Vista del Mar, the county now only offers 43 licensed inpatient beds for involuntary admissions.
State licensing officials said they were aware of Denering’s decision and would monitor the hospital to ensure it was properly complying with the suspension order. The hospital can continue to admit voluntary patients and remains accredited.
Some members of the advisory committee said they were taken by surprise by the suspension and only learned about it on October 9, when Denering told them about the action which followed an 18-year investigation. month.
Denering said Behavioral Health Director Scott Gilman, who is on leave, informed the board via a warning he gave the hospital in June.
Some board members said they had no recollection of any notification, adding that a check of board documents from that time confirmed them.
“As an oversight and accountability board, we would have liked to know at the beginning of the 18-month review, not the end, when action had been decided,” said board member Liz Warren .
Board members are expected to discuss a proposal to alert them earlier to potential actions against providers at an upcoming board meeting.
Kathleen Wilson covers crime, courts and local government for the Ventura County Star. Contact her at kathleen.wilson@vcstar.com or 805-437-0271.
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