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Alleged assault of Polk patient by aide probed
Thursday, July 29, 1999 By Patrick Hernan
POLK, Pa. -- Yet another abuse investigation has been launched at the Polk Center in Venango County amid allegations that a residential-services aide assaulted a mentally retarded patient of the institution last week.
The patient was not seriously injured, state police in Franklin said yesterday. A criminal probe is under way in the incident, which took place July 20 at 6 p.m. Police declined to disclose more details.
Jay Pagni, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Welfare, Polk's governing agency, refused yesterday to name the aide or the resident or provide details of the incident. He would say only that the aide had been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the probe.
"We are conducting a full-scale internal review," he said.
Of Polk's 1,200 employees, about 600 hold the title of residential-services aide and work as members of the institution's direct-care staff. RSAs, as they are known, earn about $27,000 a year and belong to Local 1050 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The union did not return calls seeking comment on the incident yesterday.
Kevin Casey, executive director of Pennsylvania Protection and Advocacy Inc. in Harrisburg, a federally mandated watchdog group for citizens with disabilities, said yesterday that his agency had been told that "a staff member struck a client."
Police and the Welfare Department did the right thing by ordering swift probes, Casey said.
"They're doing a proper investigation," he said. "When you're employing human beings, this sort of thing happens from time to time. I'm sure if the employee is found to have struck a resident, he or she will be dismissed."
More than a dozen current or former Polk employees have become the subjects of abuse probes since November 1996, when the state Department of Health uncovered evidence that about 30 patients at the institution had received substandard medical care dating back to 1994.
The office of state Attorney General Mike Fisher filed criminal charges against six physicians in February after a two-year probe. Prosecutors accused the doctors of crimes ranging from involuntary manslaughter for causing three patient deaths by withholding treatment to simple assault for stapling shut patients' wounds without anesthesia.
Though most of the charges were dismissed by Venango County District Justice Robert Boyer in April, five of the physicians still face charges. Venango County President Judge H. William White is expected to rule within days whether they'll have to stand trial in Common Pleas Court.
In 1996, a Polk RSA was charged with simple assault and harassment for holding a patient attending a picnic by his suspenders and encouraging other patients to run by and strike him.
Police said the employee, who was suspended, fired and convicted of assault, said "free shot" four or five times while holding the patient, and was turned in by a fellow employee sickened by the incident.
Five Polk employees were suspended, and one was fired in late 1997 amid allegations that they orally abused and demeaned residents attending a function in one of the institution's residence halls.
Patrick Hernan is a free-lance writer.
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