Local

Patients claim Baker County hospital not allowing them on grounds

Patients in a Baker County hospital told Action News Jax the state is not allowing them access to the grounds.

Northeast Florida STate Hospital patients said for a month they’ve been cooped up inside the mental health facility with no outside privileges because of a shortage of staff members.

The Florida Department of Children and Families said the accusations are false.

DCF sent us a statement that reads, “The assertion that residents are being denied outside exposure is false. There have been no broad restrictions on freedom of movement at NEFSH and there is not an issue with staffing at the facility. Current staffing levels are within 1% of the target for employees on the ground and there have not been any recent changes in staffing levels.”

Patients paint a vastly different version of what’s happening inside the hospital grounds.

To ensure the safety and protection of the patients, we won’t identify who they are.

Instead we use “Patient one, Patient two and Patient three” to reference the patients when they’re being quoted.

“We’re completely locked up all the time,” said Patient One.

“It’s worse than a prison. I feel like I’d rather be in jail than be in here,” said Patient Two.

Patients say typically they’re allowed one hour outside to take in the fresh air, but they say that’s been curtailed due to lack of staff.

“They cut our grounds off and today we’ve been outside, but I don’t know how long they will let us out there,” explained Patient Three.

We asked DCF for records regarding ground access and freedom of movement for its residents.

The department sent us a statement that reads: “We have reviewed our records regarding grounds access and freedom of movement for our Residents over the past month.  Our records indicate that full grounds access was cancelled one time within this 30-day window due to weather. Four individuals had ground access limited due enhanced supervision requirements.”

For background information on full ground access, DCF provided us with the following breakdown:

“Full grounds access (FGA) for a Resident is determined by the Psychiatrist-lead Recovery Team. The Recovery Team may restructure a Resident's grounds privileges at any time after assessing the individual’s mental health status, risk factors, and other safety concerns. Every Resident has a right to outside activities and fresh air.  While a Resident may not have full, unsupervised access to the grounds, outside activities are available to all Residents daily and are not restricted unless there are extreme weather-related issues or acuity issues.”

Patient three explained, “We have nothing to look forward to. We have nothing to count on,” and they said the grounds are desolate because they’re not being allowed outside.

Patients told us the last week the violence inside their wards has skyrocketed, including one patient who attempted suicide.

“This was an act of pure neglect on the hospital’s part,” said Patient One.

DCF responded to Action News Jax about this specific case saying, “There has been an attempted suicide earlier this week at Northeast Florida State Hospital (NEFSH); however, I am not able to provide any additional details due to privacy restrictions and out of respect for the resident.”