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Posts published in “Day: February 12, 2007”

Danger zone

February 12, 2007
Eastern State Hospital
Eastern State Hospital, at Medical Lake/DSHS

State mental hospitals always have been somewhat dangerous places, to some extent a naturally inherent quality of places for treating the mentally troubled. But there are matters of degree, and Washington state's seems a little more so than most.

In the Washington House, 24 members have just introduced House Bill 2187, now lodged in the Health Care & Wellness Committee, aimed principally at increasing the nursing staff, and taking other safety measures, in the state hospitals. The bill makes explicit the reasons: "The legislature finds that the continuing number of assaults in state hospitals have made conditions for both patients and staff unacceptable. The legislature further finds that appropriate nurse staffing levels will result in improved patient and staff safety and a reduction in the number of workplace injuries. Therefore, to improve safety conditions in the state hospitals, the legislature intends that minimum patient assignment limits and nurse staffing ratios and other safety measures be implemented as an urgent public policy priority."

The strength of the language about the "continuing number of assaults" suggests a major problem. And so there is.

Ten years ago, the state Department of Health developed a study about workplace injuries at the state hospitals. Here's the abstract:

In order to estimate rates and identify risk factors for assaults on employees of a state psychiatric hospital, we examined workers' compensation claims, hospital-recorded incident reports, and data collected in a survey of ward staff. Results revealed 13.8 workers' compensation claims due to assault per 100 employees per year. Assaults were responsible for 60% of total claims. Incident reports revealed 35 injuries due to assault per 100 employees per year. Survey data revealed 415 injuries due to assault per 100 employees per year. Of the respondents, 73% reported at least a minor injury during the past year. Assault management training in the past year was associated with less severe injuries. Working in isolation, the occupation of mental health technician, and working on the geriatric-medical hospital unit were associated with more severe injuries during the past year. Assaults on staff in psychiatric hospitals represent a significant and underrecognized occupational hazard.

Bad enough, but since then, things have gotten a good deal worse.

(more…)

Filibusted

February 12, 2007

Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith gave it a shot on Monday, but they didn't have the Senate-wide support needed to filibuster - a tactic they were trying to force Senate consideration of federal timber funding for 700 counties in 39 states, including, perhaps most critically, a string of counties in Oregon.

This is the funding cut we described on Saturday, that is wreaking severe damage all over, maybe most obviously in such counties as Coos and Curry. But many others, too. Senators from the Northwest seems to be spearheading the effort to recover the funding, but they're apparently not getting enough traction yet.

Wyden said he has hopes the funding will still be restored. Maybe so. But if so, not easily.

Going underground

February 12, 2007

This - Washington Senate Bill 5926 - could go some truly interesting places and kick over some significant rocks, in the area of illegal immigration.

Informal reports in the last couple of years have begun to suggest that the construction industry, not crop agriculture as in the past, is the largest attractor of workers who have no permission to be in this country. One report from the Pew Hispanic Center last March estimated 24% of all workers were working in agriculture, 17% in cleaning, 14% in construction and 12% in food preparation. Of these categories, construction has been the boom and - if the national construction frenzy maintains for a while - it may soon surpass agriculture.

Hence this statement of intent on the newly-introduced SB5926:

The legislature finds that some current estimates place the percentage of unreported employment in Washington state's construction industry at between twenty percent and fifty percent, although solid data on this phenomenon is not readily available in Washington. The legislature also finds that unreported construction employment may result in the loss of a worker's employment rights and protections, including workers' compensation and unemployment insurance compensation. The legislature further finds that unreported construction employment also could deny the state the revenues it is due, including sales taxes, business and occupation taxes, and other business fees paid to the state. The legislature declares that the underground economy in this state may permit unfair conditions to exist against persons working in the construction industry who do follow the employment laws and appropriately pay taxes. It is the legislature's intent to determine the extent and potential costs to the state of the underground economy in the construction industry.

It would do that, to begin with, by setting up a legislative task force. Such creatures usually merit the yawning reactions they generally get, but this one - because of its explicitly investigative mission - could matter quite a bit even if it never develops any legislation. The information it uncovers, if it has any aggressiveness at all, could make a difference. (By the way, see also the item on this on the Seattle Stranger's Slog.)

Nationally, we can hire all the border guards and erect all the fences we want, but illegals will keep coming as long as (a) conditions back home are deeply unsatisfying and (b) as long as they can get satisfaction from the economy here. Genuine solutions to the porous border problem clearly will have to do mostly with one or both of those issues. We have limited ability to address the first, but we can address the second, at least to some extent. For all the harrumphing going on elsewhere, the Washington legislature is now navigating closer to the heart of the issue than most.

(Lead sponsor is Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, joined by Senators Clements, Kastama, Weinstein, Fairley, Keiser, Marr, Tom, Murray, Oemig, Sheldon and Kline, all Democrats.)