Palms West CEO decries 'unprovoked, senseless violence' in patient's beating of nurse

Yahoo

25-02-2025

ROYAL PALM BEACH — The CEO of HCA Florida Palms West Hospital on Tuesday, Feb. 25, called the Feb. 18 attack on a nurse an act of "unprovoked, senseless violence" and said "more must be done" to make health care workplaces safer.
"No healthcare worker should ever have to experience such violence," Jason Kimbrell said in an email to the Palms West staff in his first public comments on the incident that broke "essentially every bone" in Leelamma Lal's face and may cost the 21-year Palms West employee her eyesight.
Kimbrell, who has led the 204-bed hospital since 2021, encouraged 1,200-plus Palms West's workers to urge their representatives to pass the Safety from Violence for Healthcare Employees Act that is now before Congress. He said it would make violence against caregivers a federal crime.
In his email, Kimbrell said Palms West "has a zero-tolerance policy toward workplace violence" and has taken recent steps to increasing "physical security measures." He noted that the state's Agency for Healthcare Administration visited the facility on Monday and had not recommended any immediate corrections to its operations.
He also said that within 24 hours of the beating, for which the patient now faces an attempted murder charge, the staff at Palms West conducted an interdisciplinary review that found that 'all procedures and policies were followed."
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Kimbrell's comments come one day after an attorney representing Lal's family said Palms West lacked appropriate safety measures on the day of the attack.
Security was so lax that Scantlebury was able to flee from the hospital and run along Southern Boulevard after the attack, said the attorney, Karen Terry of the Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley firm.
Terry added the hospital shouldn't even have been treating the patient because it is not a facility that receives patients under the Baker Act, which allows for a 72-hour involuntary hospitalization for those who might harm others or themselves.
A Palms West spokesperson has said Scantlebury had come to the hospital seeking care for an ailment that the hospital has declined to specify.
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The Feb 18. attack happened in a matter of seconds, Kimbrell wrote.
Lal, a 67-year-old Royal Palm Beach resident, was caring for Stephen Scantlebury, 33, a Wellington man who had been evaluated at the hospital for mental-health issues under the state's Baker Act. Upon entering his room, Scantlebury jumped on top of Lal and hit her face repeatedly with his fists.
Beyond the attempted second-degree murder charge, the sheriff's office also has placed a hate-crime enhancement on Scantlebury's arrest, saying he made reference to Lal's gender, race or religion before the attack. It did not specify which one. Lal is of Indian descent.
Circuit Judge Donald Hafele denied bail for Scantlebury on Tuesday, declining a request by his lawyer that he be placed on house arrest and taken to a treatment facility. Hafele ordered the court to schedule a pretrial detention hearing where the issue of bail may arise again.
The incident comes at a time when Palms West has been expanding its footprint in Palm Beach County's western communities.
Since Kimbrell became CEO, it has expanded its maternity, children's medicine and emergency departments and is now pushing to build an $80 million, five-story building for robotics-assisted surgery across Southern Boulevard. That measure may go before the Palm Beach County Commission on Thursday.
The beating has alarmed nurses and health care workers across Palm Beach County, many of whom rallied Sunday outside Palms West and at the now-closed Jerome Golden Center in West Palm Beach. A 2018 federal Bureau of Labor Statistics study found health care workers suffered nearly 75% of all cases of workforce violence.
Kimbrell said in the email he will continue to hold town hall meetings with the Palms West staff and also provide them with spiritual and counseling services. He offered to meet with them personally.
"Our mission is to care for people in their most vulnerable moments — including our own colleagues," Kimbrell said. "We must be united in our commitment to safety, respect and support for one another."
Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at [e-mail] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: 'Senseless violence': Palms West CEO decries nurse beating in Florida