Officials are protesitng after the Arizona healthcare facility where an incapacitated patient was raped and impregnated announced its intention to close its 60-bed operation.
The closure of Hacienda HealthCare was announced after the non-profit’s board of directors considered if keeping the facility open was sustainable, and just days after the nurse charged with the rape pleaded not guilty in court.
The board “has come to understand that it is simply not sustainable to continue to operate our Intermediate Care Facility for the Intellectually Disabled“, the company said in a statement.
The facility has been embroiled in controversy since thee woman gave birth unexpectedly in December. Officials then conducted an investigation that involved testing the DNA of men who work at the facility and had access to the woman, with nurse Nathan Sutherland allegedly matching with the child’s DNA.
The decision to close the facility was quickly criticised by state officials, including governor Doug Ducey, who called the decision “concerning” because state oversight officials had been working to ensure patient safety since the incident came to light.
“For some patients at the facility, this is the only home they know or remember,” Patric Ptak, a spokesman for Mr Ducey, said in a statement to The Arizona Republic. “Forcing this medically fragile community to move should be a last resort. Everyone’s first priority should be protecting their health and safety”.
The facility said the board of directors voted to close down the operation last Friday.
The vote to close the facility now brings into question where those patients left behind in the facility might go, and it is not clear that the other state-run operations have the capacity to care for the patients who are facing unclear futures. The most recent federal tally listed 39 patients in the facility.
The woman who gave birth to the child in December was a 29-year-old incapacitated patient, who needed “maximum level of care”, according to court records.
Mr Sutherland was one of her healthcare providers, and was charged last month with one count of vulnerable adult abuse, and another of sexual assault.
