Drug treatment center subject of state investigation

A Spokane drug and alcohol treatment center looking for a site to expand its operations is under investigation by the state following allegations by former employees that the center mistreated addicts in its care.

Among six pages of complaints against American Behavioral Health Systems are allegations that the company subjected clients to physical and verbal abuse, did not give them enough food and would discharge people rather than take them to hospitals for treatment of serious medical problems.

“What I didn’t like was the way clients were treated. We’re trying to put people together, not tear them apart more,” said Jan Broxson, one of three former employees listed in the complaint.

Craig Phillips, company founder and chief executive officer, said that to his knowledge, “there are no wrongdoings, or have there been, at ABHS.”

As to specific complaints, Phillips said he was uncomfortable discussing issues that might become the subject of litigation, but he emphasized that the results of a state investigation are not complete.

The 117-bed treatment center is located on east Cozza Drive in north Spokane. That facility and another previously owned by ABHS on Garland Avenue were subject to similar investigations that threatened their licenses in 2000. Since then, public health officials have said the company has remedied those problems.

Hired in 2004, Broxson worked as a counselor at ABHS until about two months ago, while seeking chemical dependency certification to add to her resume, she said.

In addition to complaints filed with the Department of Social and Health Services Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Broxson is also petitioning state and federal agencies to recover unpaid overtime she contends she is owed.

Broxson also maintains that after standing up for patients she was wrongfully fired for not providing a transcript of a free class that does not come with a transcript.

Some of the allegations in the complaint surround serious, untreated medical conditions.

One night, Broxson said, she aided a patient that other employees were ignoring. The patient was approaching a state of diabetic shock because he hadn’t eaten dinner, she said.

In another incident, Broxson said, a patient with tuberculosis who had coughed up blood in front of her was discharged instead of taken to a hospital.

“They put her on a bus to Seattle,” Broxson said.The Washington Department of Health also looked into complaints there in recent weeks. While the investigation found some deficiencies, “we did not find any conditions that would have risen to the level of taking action against their licensing,” said Barbara Runyon, residential care services program manager with the department.

The company followed requirements for reporting tuberculosis, she said.

The Department of Alcohol and Substance Abuse investigation is ongoing, and its findings will not be released until it is completed, said Dennis Malmer, the department’s certification section supervisor.

American Behavioral Health Systems is one of the largest in-patient facilities in Washington that receives public money to treat addicts who could not afford it otherwise.

The state pays between $39.25 and $83.41 per person, per day, depending on the patient’s stage in the program.

About 1,400 people are admitted to the facility each year, Phillips said. Not all are there as part of state-funded programs.

The recent scrutiny comes as the company looks for a suitable place to expand. In May, Spokane County commissioners designated the center an essential public facility, which invoked a lengthy process that is used to find sites for things like airports and mental hospitals that people might not want near their homes.

Topping the ranked list of potential sites were two properties in Spokane Valley and one in downtown Spokane.

When that process began, a spokeswoman from the Spokane Regional Health District called ABHS a “valuable community resource,” and other government officials have said the facility had improved greatly since it was nearly shut down in late 2000.

At that point the Department of Health had begun license revocation proceedings after investigations cited ABHS for “neglect or indifference to the welfare of patients.” The investigations followed complaints of filthy conditions and charges that patients’ nutritional, medical and counseling needs were going unmet.

About the same time, Spokane County let its contract with ABHS lapse after an audit found the company had illegally used money from clients’ accounts to pay its bills.

An agreement with the state that kept the facility open required a number of measures, which included bringing in an outside consultant to monitor ABHS bookkeeping.

The number of complaints filed against ABHS has decreased substantially since then, Malmer said. He added that of all the complaints his agency receives, only about 25 percent are found to be substantiated after investigations.

Accusations similar to those leveled by Broxson and her colleagues emerged last year when a patient sued ABHS over care costing more than $10,000 that she received in 2003.

The patient, who is legally blind and has multiple sclerosis, said ABHS breached their contract by evicting her with less than one day’s notice before she had completed a 90-day alcohol treatment program, according to court documents.

The suit also accuses ABHS of negligence, saying that the facility had inadequate staffing and failed to provide her with things like a bed, eating utensils or consistent meals.

Additionally, the suit alleges that a staff member threatened her with a kitchen knife, that her prescriptions were mishandled and that the facility failed to accommodate her disabilities.

ABHS denied the accusations.

The lawsuit was settled out of court.