A Vermont State Hospital employee extinguished a fire in a patient’s room just after midnight on Thursday. The fire, which was intentionally set by a patient, was in the middle of the room, according to a press release from the Vermont State Police.
No one was injured. All of the employees and more than 50 patients were evacuated from the Waterbury facility. The fire is under investigation.
The patient, Ernest Horvat, was cited for arson and is scheduled to appear in Washington County District Court on June 9, according to State Police.
Christine Oliver, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Mental Health, said she was “pleased staff were able to respond safely and quickly.”
“In a hospital with this level of patients, incidents are going to happen,” Oliver said. “It’s important that your systems are in place to respond to them.”
Licensing and Protection, a division of the Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living, will assess the incident, Oliver said. Licensing and Protection conducts surveys of the facility for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
Oliver didn’t say whether the fire would jeopardize the Vermont State Hospital’s prospects for federal recertification.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid decertified the Vermont State Hospital in 2005 because of a string of problems at the facility, including two suicides, the use of involuntary restraints and poor facility conditions. The state has tried repeatedly to improve care at the hospital, and it has renovated the building, but these efforts have not been enough to re-qualify the hospital for recertification. As a result of the hospital’s poor standing, it has lost about $10 million a year in funding from the federal government. Efforts to build a new facility have failed for a lack of support from state officials.
Oliver said the department was in the process of finding out when the Vermont State Hospital would go through a federal review. She said it could be weeks or months before federal officials schedule a visit to the hospital.
