Psychiatric wards boost security after escape

The other patient, Mark Adams, 58, was recaptured soon after but Garver managed to elude authorities for 48 hours until his capture in Spokane, some 300 miles (482 km) away, Washington State Patrol said.

“I was afraid this was going to go sideways”. Garver was moved to a less-secure unit at the psychiatric hospital after the murder charge was dismissed and he was placed under a civil commitment.

Kathy Spears of the Washington Department of Social and Health Services expects to have an update Saturday afternoon about what will happen next to Garver, who was hiding in the woods near his family home around 8:15 p.m. Friday.

Security is being enhanced at Washington state psychiatric hospitals in the wake of an escape by two patients at Western State Hospital.

Meanwhile, police are looking for a third patient who also left the hospital on the same day as Garver and Adams.

The state has a history of underfunding its mental health programs, including its facilities, said Lauren Simonds, executive director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness Washington.

Anthony Garver, 28, was one of two patients who fled from the Western State Hospital in Lakewood, Washington on Wednesday.

“The hospital has restricted patient-earned privileges that allow them escorted and unescorted access to Western State Hospital grounds and off-campus excursions throughout the weekend as the hospital increases its security measures”, the statement said.

Another had been approved for discharge and was awaiting community placement but did not return from a visit to a fast-food restaurant. Like Garver, he was found too mentally ill to stand trial and a judge ordered him held at the hospital.

The hospital faces new scrutiny after the two attacks and escapes, said Steven Chickering, associate regional administrator of a division of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“We’re not sure of the next steps yet”, Barclay said. “The safety of the public, the patients and staff is paramount”.

“CMS was aware of all three of these situations, and can not comment on how they will affect Western State Hospital’s Federal funding”, he said in an email. But this raises serious questions once again about the management and operation of this troubled hospital.

Garver was charged in 2013 with tying a 20-year-old woman to her bed with electrical cords, stabbing her 24 times in the chest and slashing her throat, prosecutors said.

Federal investigators have repeatedly cited the facility for safety concerns.

More than half of the 700 injuries reported by nurses, psychiatric technicians, counselors, psychiatrists and other workers during that period were caused by violent patient assaults, the records said. A workplace inspection released this week found a series of missteps that posed safety risks, including unlocked rooms, unattended items that could be used as weapons and workers who abandoned their posts instead of watching patients. Adams was captured in Des Moines on Thursday, and Garver was seen on surveillance video buying a bus ticket to Spokane.