By Healthcare Facilities Today

Rep. Clark Johnson and Sen. Kathy Sheran called for immediate action to address the ongoing safety issues with the troubled Minnesota Security Hospital recently in the wake of a murder of a hospital patient by another patient in the facility, according to an article on the Mankato Free Press website. The lawmakers called for a variety of actions, including further support for Gov. Mark Dayton's $56 million bonding proposal to reconstruct the hospital.

The lawmakers called for numerous fixes to address the hospital's ongoing safety problems. Sheran said the incidents of patients and staff suffering injuries had become an escalating problem.

“We have to deal with this (facility). We need to get to the bottom of how to address safety at this location,” Johnson said in the article. Sheran said that the bonding proposal was only one of many changes that would be needed to improve facility safety. She said that other types of change, such as improved schedule of staff, could address different types of safety problems. She said she is awaiting an already ongoing safety analysis of the facility to draw up a definitive plan.

According to the article, security issues include:

■ July 2013: A patient was left on his own outside of shelter in downtown Minneapolis.

■ May 2012: A patient escaped from the hospital and was found a day later at Seven Mile Creek County Park. The patient previously escaped from the facility in 2008.

■ May 2012: On the same day of the escape, a different patient out on a day pass attempted to murder his mother while on a day pass. The patient had been committed 14 years prior for murdering his sister.

Read the article.