State Announces Settlement Agreement with Department of Justice to Improve Mental Health Hospitals

ATLANTA – Governor Sonny Perdue announced today the state has reached a settlement with the Justice Department regarding the state’s seven psychiatric hospitals. The state facilities involved in the settlement include: Georgia Regional Hospital at Atlanta, Georgia Regional Hospital at Savannah, Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, Southwestern State Hospital in Thomasville, East Central Regional Hospital in Augusta, West Central Georgia Regional Hospital in Columbus and Northwest Georgia Regional Hospital in Rome.

“We have worked aggressively to improve patient care at our state hospitals,” said Governor Perdue. “This settlement was reached after a very cooperative process, and it confirms our strategy to improve the state’s mental health programs is headed in the right direction.”

Today's settlement with the Department of Justice is the result of a cooperative effort by State entities and DOJ to reach a settlement that will make meaningful changes to improve the care and treatment of patients at Georgia’s seven psychiatric hospitals, and is a result of Georgia’s commitment to make meaningful improvements in the care of its patients.

DHR Commissioner B.J. Walker said the agreement highlights Georgia’s ongoing effort to transform the state’s mental health system.

“This is an agreement in every sense of the word because we all agree that consumers with mental illness deserve the best care we can give them,” said Commissioner Walker. “We were already addressing many of these quality issues at our existing hospitals. We have been working for some time to transition Georgia’s mental health system from one that overburdened its psychiatric hospitals to a system that offers comprehensive, community-based solutions as well as high-quality state facilities. The end result will be better, safer outcomes not only for our hospital patients, but for all Georgians with mental illness.”

Specifically, Georgia has agreed to improve incident reviews and investigations, mental health treatment planning, seclusion and restraint protocols, medical and nursing care, and discharge planning in all of its psychiatric hospitals. Georgia agreed to target and achieve improvements within the areas of choking and aspiration risk assessment and prevention, suicide risk assessment and prevention, patient-on-patient assault prevention, and more consistent emergency medical codes within the first year of the agreement.

Copies of the settlement documents were filed today in federal court and will be available on the Justice Department Web site upon approval by a federal judge.

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