2021 Annual Report - State Hospitals
2021 Annual Report - State Hospitals
Settlement Reached in COVID Case at California State Hospital
After months of litigation, Aldo Hernandez, Charles Gluck, and Graham Waldrop reached a settlement with the Department of State Hospitals in a landmark case regarding COVID-19’s risk to medically vulnerable patients in one of the largest psychiatric facilities in the nation.
Plaintiffs originally filed a lawsuit in August 2020, in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak in which more than 100 patients and more than 140 staff members and personnel had already tested positive for COVID-19. The lawsuit alleged that the crowded, congregate nature of Patton State Hospital’s facilities and state hospital policies put vulnerable patients at risk of serious illness or death from the COVID-19 virus.
In December of 2020, another COVID-19 outbreak endangered the lives of hundreds of additional Patton State Hospital patients, including every plaintiff in the lawsuit. In response, Plaintiffs filed multiple emergency motions in order to force the Department of State Hospitals to make immediate changes to protect the safety and well-being of all high-risk patients at Patton.
After a court hearing on Plaintiffs’ emergency motions for relief, DSH agreed to offer vaccines to all patients on an expedited basis—not just at Patton State Hospital but at all five state hospital facilities—and to continue to offer them to all new patients and those who previously refused. After 19 patient deaths and 588 patient positives at Patton State Hospital, the numbers finally dropped at Patton and throughout the state hospital system.
The lawsuit resulted in prioritized access to COVID-19 vaccines for the more than 6000 residents throughout the State Hospital system – one of the first cases in the country to produce such an outcome.
As part of the settlement, DSH will continue to offer vaccinations to patients who have not yet received them and provide public information about the vaccination process. Additionally, DSH will provide a statewide healing quilt and a “dinner event” for all patients at DSH-Patton, in recognition of the bereavement and trauma suffered by patients at the hospital during the pandemic. “The decision to start vaccinating state hospital patients early was momentous and absolutely saved lives,” says DRC attorney Kim Pederson. “But DSH-Patton is still a crowded, congregate environment and remains a danger zone for future infectious diseases, so it will be important for the state to continue to protect vulnerable patients.”
Attorneys from Disability Rights California (“DRC”) and Covington & Burling represented the Plaintiffs.
