In an unusual arrangement, the hospital also pays rent for part of the land to a company that is registered to Worsham’s home address and managed by her husband, documents show.īut police records, state inspection reports, and lawsuits, as well as interviews with more than 15 current and former employees, including administrators and psychiatrists, reveal that Shadow Mountain is a profoundly troubled facility where frequent violence endangers patients and staff alike, where children as young as 5 are separated from their parents and held in dangerous situations, and where wards lack adequate staffing and staff lack adequate training. It’s where one of the company’s executives, Sharon Worsham, got her start, running the Oklahoma facility for years and grooming its current leader.
The company, which disputed the findings of the investigation, has insisted that it delivers “compassionate, high-quality care.”Īmong the 200 psychiatric hospitals UHS owns, Shadow Mountain, one of the largest, has a special history. That investigation found that some UHS facilities locked in people who did not need to be hospitalized and held them for as long as their insurance companies could be convinced to pay, meanwhile offering inadequate or even dangerous treatment. A recent BuzzFeed News investigation raised grave questions about the multibillion-dollar company and the extent to which it achieved its high profits ( around 27% last year) at the expense of patients’ well-being and employees’ safety. Shadow Mountain is owned by America’s largest psychiatric hospital chain, Universal Health Services. “It was crazy, mass chaos,” said an employee who saw the scene unfold. Running to reach him, another worker stepped in a hole and injured his ankle. Outside, a patient scaled the 10-foot fence and, as employees watched in horror, began slicing his wrists with a piece of glass, three employees recently recalled.
In the tumult, one staff member reported being stabbed in the forehead with a pencil. When a staff member unlocked the room the patients had shut themselves in, police pepper-sprayed the kids inside. A “code green” blared over the intercom system, alerting employees across the hospital to the violence. The officers called for backup, and three more police cars pulled up to Shadow Mountain Behavioral Health, which primarily treats young people. The new manager had been attacked, a handful of its teenage patients had barricaded themselves in a small room, and others were fighting with staff. TULSA, Oklahoma - By the time police arrived at the psychiatric hospital, one of the adolescent units was out of control.
Other main stories in the series include:Ī Prescription For Violence and related video This is part of a BuzzFeed News Investigation.