Latest news with #HCAFloridaPalmsWestHospital
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Palms West attack: Hospital, PBSO to discuss security staffing after patient beats nurse
ROYAL PALM BEACH — HCA Florida Palms West Hospital is taking steps to increase security on its Southern Boulevard campus following the Feb. 18 beating of a nurse by a patient that fractured "essentially every bone' in her face and put her at risk of going blind. The nurse, 67-year-old Leelamma Lal of Royal Palm Beach, remains at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach nearly a month after the attack. Palms West on March 10 opened a work station for the Palm Beach County Sheriff Office inside its emergency room, HCA spokesperson Louis Lochte said. The hospital is "in talks" with PBSO to hire an off-duty deputy to provide added security, Lochte later confirmed. 'This is unimaginable': Palms West nurse's children react to mother's beating by patient A sheriff's spokesperson said the agency has not stationed a deputy at the private hospital and that the work station only serve as a "courtesy space" that private businesses can offer law-enforcement officers where they can fill out reports and make calls if they choose to do so. "Our job is to be patrolling the area in which we're expected to patrol, not to be sitting in a hospital,' the sheriff's office spokesperson said. The hiring of an off-duty deputy would be on the terms that any business would receive, the sheriff's office said. Deputies arrested Stephen Scantlebury, the patient who beat Lal, on a charge of attempted second-degree murder on Feb. 18. The sheriff's office placed a hate-crime enhancement on the case after deputies said Scantlebury "made utterances" about the Lal' race after the attack. Lal, a nurse at Palms West for 21 years, is from India. A spokesperson for the State Attorney's Office said Thursday it intends to charge Scantlebury, 33, of Wellington with attempted first-degree murder because of the hate-crime enhancement. Lal was caring for Scantlebury, who had come to Palms West complaining of chest pains. The 33-year-old's family said he had been experiencing moments of paranoia, and the staff was evaluating him to see if Palms West needed to send him to a hospital certified to handle mental-health cases under the state's Baker Act. When Lal entered the room, Scantlebury allegedly jumped on top of her and hit her face repeatedly with his fists. Scantlebury then ran out of the hospital and was detained as he ran along Southern Boulevard. Circuit Judge Howard Coates on Feb. 27 ordered that Scantlebury kept in custody prior to his trial, citing security concerns. Palms West attack: CEO decries 'unprovoked, senseless violence' in patient's beating of nurse The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration released a report this week stating a Feb. 24 evaluation at HCA Palms West found "no deficiencies at the time of the survey.' Palms West CEO Jason Kimbrell disclosed the finding in an email to his staff on Feb. 25. Karen Terry, the attorney representing Lal, questioned the depth of the evaluation and said Palms West's lack of security allowed Scantlebury to attack Lal and then flee from the hospital. She 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. Terry filed last week a request to the court to access Scantlebury's medical history, the hospital's security camera footage and a list of its policies regarding Baker Act patients. "I don't know how to explain that finding, with everything I've seen," said Terry, a partner at the Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley law firm in West Palm Beach. 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 vpalm@ 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: Palms West, PBSO to discuss security staffing after beating of nurse
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Palms West CEO decries 'unprovoked, senseless violence' in patient's beating of nurse
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." 'This is unimaginable': Palms West nurse's children react to mother's beating by patient 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. Palms West attack: Healthcare workers rally for protections following attack on nurse 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 vpalm@ 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
