Doctor injured at Cherry Hospital
By Matthew Whittle
Published in News on June 24, 2011 1:46 PM
State Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Van Sciver acknowledged today that a doctor at Cherry Hospital was injured after being attacked by a patient on June 8.
He said the doctor, a psychiatrist, was taken to the emergency department at Wayne Memorial Hospital, but that she was treated and released and did not require hospitalization.
Van Sciver explained that on a typical shift of about 80 people, approximately 50 of them are equipped with emergency body alarms, but admitted that there have been problems with them not always working and issues with false alarms.
He said the hospital has given out whistles to its staff to be used in case of emergency, but added that he did not have numbers on how many staff members had those and what type of whistles they are.
Either way, however, he said, the doctor told officials that "(the attack) happened so quickly it wouldn't have mattered anyway."
The new Cherry Hospital, projected to open in 2013, will have a new alarm system, Van Sciver said. But he did not have any additional details as to how it would differ from the current one being used across the state.
According to information on hospital's web page on the state health and human services website, there have been 25 staff injuries this year, with the June 8 incident the last one recorded. However, state officials in the past have acknowledged that only a small number of the actual injuries are listed on the web page.