De la Cruz, Place: Top Doctor At Eleanor Slater Should Be Fired

BURRILLVILLE, RI — Two GOP lawmakers in northern Providence County are calling for the immediate dismissal of Dr. Andrew C. Stone, the chief of medical services at Eleanor Slater State Hospital.

Senate Minority Whip Jessica de la Cruz, (R-Dist. 23, Burrillville, Glocester, North Smithfield) and Representative David J. Place, (R-Dist. 47, Burrillville, Glocester) released a statement Tuesday claiming that the situation at the Zambarano Unit in Burrillville has deteriorated to the point where the chief of medical services needs to be removed.

“Patients, their families and employees are all being negatively affected by the cold and callous treatment of patients and the toxic culture at Zambarano," stated Sen. de la Cruz. “Governor McKee needs to step in and fire Dr. Stone. The gambling with these vulnerable people’s lives needs to stop.”

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The two claim Stone issued an ultimatum to oxygen-dependent patients at Zambarano and told them they must transfer to the Cranston campus. The patients could choose to stay at the Burrillville campus, but they would not receive oxygen and would be placed in hospice, according to the accusation. The lawmakers maintain that the move was done behind the back of Kathryn Power, the beleaguered director of the state's Dept. of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals, or BHDDH.

Power in recent days submitted her resignation amid intense controversy over her leadership. Three doctors at the hospital have also stepped down in apparent protest since the facility's longtime former medical director issued a statement claiming that doctors were being improperly pressured to discharge patients. The letter from Normand L. Decelles Jr. came to light the same time the Disability Rights Rhode Island disclosed it had asked state officials to initiate an investigation into patient discharge practices at Zambarano.

Power has denied that a plan to close the Zambarano Unit is underway, denied that improper discharges are being done, and has said a plan where patients are placed in less-restrictive community settings is preferable to keeping them in a hospital for the rest of their lives. At the same time, Power has said no patient will be moved against their will.

De la Cruz and Place maintain that a "shadow closure" of the Zambarano Unit is underway, and say that a plan was quietly launched more than a year ago by former Governor Raimondo’s department heads. The two say hospital administrators hid behind the guise that services were not needed, then began pressuring physicians to improperly discharge patients.

The Zambarano Unit of the Eleanor Slater State Hospital houses patients with complex and life-altering medical conditions, including paralysis and severe head injuries. The Cranston campus houses a variety of patients, including the severely mentally ill, some of whom are psychiatric forensic patients referred by the courts.

Sen. de la Cruz has previously called for Stone’s resignation. After he was hired last fall, it came to light that he had previously done prison time for four felony counts of open and gross lewdness for exposing himself to boys in the locker room of a YMCA in Seekonk, Mass.

McKee has yet to comment. McKee inherited a plan from Raimondo to consolidate operations at the hospital, and plans a $650 million nursing home unit at the Zambarano campus.