Hospital Criticized For Discharging Taunton Rampage Attacker Bans Contractor
TAUNTON (CBS) -- The hospital that released a troubled patient just hours before police say he went on a deadly stabbing rampage in Taunton announced it has banned a state-selected contractor for failing to evaluate patients in a timely way.
"Effective today, Morton Hospital has banned the state selected sub-contractor Norton Emergency Services AKA Taunton/Attleboro Emergency Services (NES/TAES) from evaluating or recommending treatment for any patient at Morton Hospital," hospital spokesperson Michele Fasano said in a release Thursday.
Fasano said the contractor was tasked with evaluating patients who came to the Morton Hospital Emergency Department, as the suspect in the stabbings did Monday night. Earlier Thursday, the state of Massachusetts said it was looking into how the hospital handled the attacker.
DaRosa, 28, was shot and killed by a deputy sheriff at a restaurant in the Silver City Galleria Tuesday after he killed two people and hurt five others.
The hospital's statement did not refer directly to DaRosa, whose family said in a press conference Wednesday that an ambulance took him to Morton Hospital at 5 p.m. Monday, and that he was discharged at 4 a.m. Tuesday. The family said he had suicidal thoughts, but that the hospital only treated him for anxiety.
Governor Charlie Baker reacted to Morton Hospital wanting the state to take the blame for letting DaRosa walk out.
"No one can be released from the hospital without a certification that is jointly signed by the provider organization and by the emergency services program, which means somebody from Morton Hospital also signed the same document," Gov. Baker said.
Morton Hospital said they've wanted to do away with third party contractors for years.
Fasano said that, between 12:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. Thursday morning, the contractor "failed to evaluate multiple patients in our Emergency Department in a timely way and when Morton Hospital proposed to do the evaluations ourselves we were rebuffed or ignored by the subcontractor."
"This inability of the state subcontractor to provide critical and timely services continues to put patients at risk," said Fasano in the statement.
The hospital said that, effective immediately, patient evaluations would be done in-house by their licensed, credentialed staff members. In a separate letter to the Department of Public Health and Department of Mental Health, the hospital requested a meeting to go over the contractor's deficiencies.
