Private company hired to run Alaska Psychiatric Institute has a mixed record
Alaska Dispatch NewsFeb 18, 2019
The move put
At the center of it is a
The name Wellpath is new, but the company is not.
In various iterations, Wellpath's predecessor
In that time, the company has accumulated a decidedly mixed record.
Most recently, Wellpath is credited for bringing humane conditions to an infamous
"Not only are they profiting off someone's loss of freedom, they are in control of their freedom," said
Evolution of a company -- and a rebrand
As budgets for governments charged with operating prisons and psychiatric hospitals have declined, states have increasingly turned to private companies to provide services ranging from medical care to food to phones.
[Earlier coverage: State paying private consultants
Companies like
Wellpath's precursor,
Last year,
Today the company operates 12 involuntary commitment centers and hospitals and sex offender treatment programs around the country and in
It is owned by
Private equity funds basically buy companies, add value and then sell them again -- the corporate equivalent of house flipping, said
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In recent years, private equity funds have invested heavily in the private prison and detention services industry. Other companies owned by private equity firms include the prison phone giant Securus and
"It's part a trend we see in companies that engage in correctional work," said
The "old names are associated with bad things," he said. "If you Google Correct Care Solutions, you're going to find deaths, lawsuits, employees arrested for misconduct," Friedmann said.
Successes, and troubles, at other Wellpath facilities
One of Wellpath's most recent projects,
One
Under Wellpath management, the use of restraints and seclusion for patients has been "virtually eliminated," according to the company.
[Earlier coverage: Federal investigators found more 'substantial deficiencies' at API than at any other US hospital last year]
It's a marked difference, said
"But I would never say Wellpath holistically is doing a great job everywhere," she said. "It's not."
Wellpath cites the 341-bed psychiatric facility
The company and its precursors take credit for managing the facility since 1998, when it became one of the first privately run state psychiatric hospitals in the nation. The company -- then under
But in 2012 a spate of patient deaths drew the attention of
At South Florida State alone, there were gruesome deaths, including a heavily medicated psychotic patient who died in a bath so scalding that his skin sloughed off in 2011. Company officials didn't properly report the death to the state, an investigation found.
In 2012, "doctors told their bosses ... that patients didn't have enough food to eat and were picking through trash cans for their meals," according to a Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 investigation by
At the same hospital, staffers were charged for beating a mentally ill patient in 2014.
"Wellpath is proud of our record at
He pointed out that
Another hospital managed by the company,
Correct Care has gotten into trouble elsewhere, too: A doctor in
The company has also been a major target of lawsuits.
In just over a decade,
It has also been the target of allegations of substandard care at immigrant detention centers where it works.
Wellpath Recovery Solutions has sought to distance itself from
'Financially incentivized'
Some people argue that introducing a profit motive to psychiatric care for involuntarily committed patients can only lead to worse care for patients.
"These companies are financially incentivized to keep people there, and that's what you see happen," said Tyler, of the
There's another layer of concern about private companies running psychiatric hospitals, Tyler said: Unlike inmates serving defined sentences, psychiatric patients are released on the orders of the hospital.
Wellpath said that its contract terms "provide no financial or other incentive to increase the duration of patient hospitalization" and that its goal is to see patients recover and return to their communities.
Another common criticism is that private prison operators only have an incentive to cut costs in order to maximize profits. Friedmann of the Human Rights Defense Center said that private prison operators are often criticized for not training or paying staff enough -- dangerous in volatile, violent environments like psychiatric hospitals.
"In order to generate profit you reduce expenses," he said. "They do that in ways that harm patients."
At two legislative hearings Wednesday, officials justified hiring Wellpath by pointing out that years of other approaches, including numerous studies and changes in leadership, have only led to a place of extreme dysfunction at API.
"What we have been doing has not worked," said Wall.
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