Hospital fined in patient suicide

The state health department has fined Immanuel Medical Center $10,000 for “multiple failures” to protect a suicidal patient who killed himself on the psychiatric ward the night of May 11.

John Bighia, 41, was taken by ambulance to the Omaha hospital’s emergency room at 8:08 p.m. after he cut his wrists at work. Emergency room staffers moved Bighia to the hospital’s psychiatric floor at 10:12 p.m., the state’s report notes, and he was found hanged in his psych-ward room at 10:40 p.m.

Immanuel is part of the Alegent Health system.

The state investigated the suicide in May.

Alegent said Thursday, in a statement, that the state did a separate “comprehensive survey at Immanuel Medical Center in late June and found Immanuel to be in full compliance with the conditions of participation required by” the federal government.

“Each day Alegent Health cares for more than 28,000 patients . . . and on any given day, we are treating some 222 behavioral health inpatients in our hospitals across the metro,” an Alegent statement said. “We have very good success managing those illnesses and conditions.”

The state placed the hospital on probation for 90 days beginning July 3. The report found hospital staffers committed the following violations of state and hospital rules:

Ÿ They failed to protect Bighia’s “right to safe care which resulted in . . . death.”

Ÿ Didn’t inspect his room before putting him in it, thus leaving open an interior door from which Bighia suspended a sheet and hanged himself.

Ÿ Failed to monitor him every 10 minutes, although a staffer falsified records indicating such monitoring had occurred.

Ÿ Didn’t inform the state within 24 hours of his death.

The report also found that shortly after staff re-education, staffers failed to adequately monitor another suicidal patient on May 14 and falsified records indicating they had. That patient didn’t harm himself.

Dan Bighia, John Bighia’s half-brother, called the fine “a slap on the wrist” and “not even a wakeup call” for the hospital.

“Not happy,” said Bighia, who lived with John Bighia in Omaha.

The report says that during the probationary period, the hospital must develop policies and procedures for monitoring suicidal patients, submit a weekly summary reporting its evaluation of the monitoring of patients, and pass a state inspection.

Contact the writer:

444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com

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