The facility manager of the state-owned Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center requested shatterproof window replacements twice before a patient hurled a chair through a glass window and jumped, according to an article on the Boston Globe website.
Massachusetts mental health officials said there was no money for the fix. Then, just before Christmas, a patient smashed an eighth-floor window and jumped to his death. The funds were approved the next day, the article said.
The US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services found the hospital did not provide safe care in this case.
A hospital committee had discussed the need for safety windows in patient community rooms at least five times since January 2013, according to the federal report. Even after a memo went to a deputy commissioner at the Department of Mental Health in July, explaining that a patient had recently smashed a window, the glass panes remained, the article said.
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