Medicare disciplines Fairview over patient runaway

Federal regulators declared a state of "immediate jeopardy" at the University of Minnesota Medical Center last month because the hospital allowed a 13-year-old boy diagnosed with bipolar disorder to run away from one of its psychiatric wards two days after a suicide attempt.

Fairview tightened security practices following the Dec. 5 incident, according to a Medicare inspection report released this week, but the boy's parents remain upset about the runaway and other hospital missteps they say endangered their son.

"Just problem after problem after problem," said Ryan Jancik, a longtime boyfriend of the boy's mother who has power of attorney over the child's care.

The boy disappeared when a therapist took him and other patients out of the hospital's locked pediatric psychiatric unit to go for a swim at a nearby pool. He was later found shoeless and in his hospital scrubs a mile away, on the Franklin Avenue bridge. A hospital courier spotted him after being alerted along with all other hospital staff to the disappearance. The driver had the boy in a headlock while waiting for officers to arrive, according to a police report.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/medicare-disciplines-fairview-over-patient-runaway/411914566/