Fate Of Eleanor Slater Hospital Topic Of 4-Hour Hearing

PROVIDENCE, RI — Lawmakers on Thursday night tried to gain factual information about the fate of Rhode Island’s beleaguered state hospital with mixed results.

The House Oversight Committee in a four-hour marathon heard from a range of stakeholders concerning the fate of the Eleanor Slater Hospital with its campuses in Cranston and Burrillville. New Governor Dan McKee inherited a state hospital overhaul plan from former Governor Gina Raimondo and the plan involves downsizing and consolidation.

Committee Chair Rep. Patricia Serpa (D-Dist. 27, West Warwick, Coventry, Warwick) kicked off the meeting by asking hospital and state officials to “tell the truth.” She said she would not ask them to testify under oath at this time. Serpa said she had hopes for a new era of honest communication under McKee.

But by the end of the evening, Serpa said she was “disappointed” upon learning that Kathryn Power, director of the Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals, had left the virtual hearing early. Two doctors at the hospital also signed out early, leaving only BHDDH public relations staffer Ryan Erickson to hear testimony from others.

"That was a total lack of respect for any of us,'' said Rep. Julie Casimiro, D-North Kingstown. "We just put in four hours.” Casimiro made the remark after it was revealed that a third doctor at the hospital had recently resigned in apparent protest. Power was not around to respond to questions about the new information.

Over the course of the hearing, lawmakers, patient advocates, family members, and nurses praised the care that patients receive at the Zambarano unit in Burrillville while challenging statements made by Power.

Power started her presentation by saying she wanted to “dispel the rumor that we want to close the Zambarano campus.” She repeated her assertion that patients at Eleanor Slater should live in community settings if possible, and maintained that nobody was being discharged against their will. Power noted that 22 "non-forensic" patients had been discharged since July 2020.

Power also addressed conflicting reports that about 20 patients on ventilators had been quietly transferred from Burrillville to Cranston. Power said the decision was made due to a newly-identifed problem with the “med gas system that delivers oxygen” at the hospital.

Two GOP Rhode Island lawmakers have charged that the state is engaged in a “shadow closure” of Zambarano. Sen. Jessica de la Cruz and Rep. David Place say patient care at the state hospital is "a matter of human dignity and moral responsibility."

Things came to a head earlier this year after the hospital's former medical director published an open letter charging that doctors were being improperly pressured to discharge patients, many of whom suffer from life-altering incapacitating injuries, from Eleanor Slater.

Read more at The Providence Journal and GoLocal Providence.