DC settles with St. Elizabeth’s patients after 28-day water outage – WTOP News

4 sufferers at D.C.’s St. Elizabeth’s psychiatric hospital who lived with out water for 28 days and filed swimsuit over the circumstances have reached a settlement with the town.

As a part of the settlement, the town should rewrite its emergency protocols, together with the way it will evacuate sufferers to a different hospital if one thing like this occurs once more.

In late September 2019, the Division of Behavioral Well being alerted the hospital’s 270 sufferers and 700 workers members that lab testing discovered pseudomonas and legionella micro organism within the water provide.

Regardless of flushing the system with chlorine, it was powerful to clear. Consequently, the water didn’t come again on for 28 days.

The criticism, filed in October 2019, detailed how the micro organism purging challenge led to overflowing bogs, pressured outside group showers and restricted the serving of sizzling meals.

The swimsuit additionally alleged that the hospital continued to just accept sufferers regardless of the dearth of working water.

“When the COVID pandemic hit within the wake of the water disaster, the District did not put into place fundamental an infection management measures really helpful by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. From March to Could 2020, greater than 187 sufferers within the hospital contracted COVID leading to 14 affected person deaths.

Throughout this era, the Courtroom estimated that the probabilities of an individual in St. Elizabeth’s contracting COVID was 40 occasions the chance for an individual residing in the neighborhood,” mentioned Gregg Kelley, with the Washington Legal professionals’ Committee for Civil Rights and City Affairs.

The water outage additionally restricted entry to kinds of remedy for the hospital’s sufferers, the swimsuit mentioned.

Within the settlement, the District agreed to offer documentation that the water contamination was remediated, keep a provide of non-public protecting tools for sufferers and workers, and hold an settlement with different hospitals to make sure they’ll settle for St. Elizabeth’s sufferers in an emergency.

It additionally required improved communication between hospital sufferers and workers throughout an emergency.

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