Evaluating Staff Safety at Osawatomie State Hospital [December 2024]

Osawatomie State Hospital does not adequately ensure the safety and security of its staff. In terms of physical security, OSH does not have adequate processes to ensure physical security. Security staff patrols of the OSH campus are incomplete and inadequate and there are not enough fire-trained security staff to respond to campus fires. OSH doesn’t ensure staff carry required personal safety alarms and doesn’t check if staff respond to alarms timely. Facilities’ staff key tracking does not include a complete and accurate accounting of all keys. OSH does not follow their process to monitor for safety risks and noncompliance with policies. Management lacks effective policies over these physical security measures, and staff have allowed issues to persist. In terms of personnel, OSH and AAC had enough nursing staff on patient units to meet their minimum staffing requirements on the sample of shifts we reviewed, and a sample of OSH and AAC staff generally received training on the select topics we reviewed. However, the facility depends on large numbers of contract nursing staff and overtime to meet minimum staffing requirements due to high turnover and vacancy rates. High reliance on contract staff and overtime result in increased state costs and risks for staff safety. In terms of working culture and environment, OSH management has not promoted a culture that prioritizes professional boundaries, following guidelines, or ensuring a safe workplace. OSH management has not set clear expectations for how safety and security processes should work and hasn’t collected and used data to proactively identify and fix safety and security problems.