“It’s like a 21st century asylum,” Jordan Zimmerman, a mental health technician who worked at Meadows from October 2021 until May, told VICE News. “Patients are telling me that they would be better off where they were, that this place is making them worse.”After the attack allegedly committed by Birkl, it was back to business as usual at the rural psychiatric hospital, workers said, and aside from removing the patient from the facility, management didn’t address the incident with employees. “They ignored it,” Zimmerman said. “And they continue to bring in dangerous people.”These employees, as well as former patients, say the hospital ignored a lot of things. While some patients told VICE News that the “help” they received at Meadows made things even worse for them, workers claim the hospital, operated by a multibillion-dollar conglomerate as part of the largest network of private psychiatric facilities in the country, is run by a managerial team that refused to listen to workers’ repeated pleas for increased staffing and security to prevent incidents like the assaults Birkl allegedly committed. This culminated in a contentious unionization campaign where several pro-union staffers have been terminated for a variety of reasons but which they say is due to their organizing activity.“Patients are telling me that they would be better off where they were, that this place is making them worse.”
In response to an emailed list of more than two dozen questions, Meadows Psychiatric Center told VICE News that “the Hospital declines to comment on the allegations set forth in your email below other than to state that these allegations are untrue and wholly unfounded,” before responding to two issues raised regarding the unionization campaign.“It’s a shame that this is what mental health care looks like in this region, when it’s really not therapeutic at all,” said Theresa Hencinski, a 22-year-old who worked as a mental health technician at the facility for more than two and a half years before she was fired immediately after putting in her two weeks’ notice.“When you mix capitalism and human services together, especially something like institutionalized mental health care,” Hencinski continued, “it doesn’t tend to pan out very nicely.”“It’s a shame that this is what mental health care looks like in this region, when it’s really not therapeutic at all.”
“If anything, it made it worse”
Meadows workers who spoke to VICE News described a facility with few resources for patients or workers. “Therapists and staff members are the ones paying for most of that stuff out of pocket,” said one current staffer, who spoke to VICE News on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “To get something as simple as a pack of Crayola markers is like pulling somebody’s tooth.” Angel Rodriguez, who worked as a mental health technician at Meadows for two years, said that though the center said it would pay for things such as socks, crayons, and markers for the patients, the facility never delivered, so workers would have to pay out of pocket.“I’m too horrified to ever go back to any inpatient facility to the point I try to ignore my mental health problems and pretend they’re not there.”
Beam’s mother later filed an emailed complaint against Meadows with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and the Joint Commission, the Meadows’ accreditor. In an email, a spokesperson from the Joint Commission told VICE News that it “was not previously aware of the concern you inquired about at The Meadows Psychiatric Center.”Following the publication of this story, a spokesperson from the Department of Human Services told VICE News in an email that the agency “licenses facilities that provide care to promote recovery and wellness for individuals with behavioral health needs, and abuse or exploitation in any form jeopardizes that mission.” “DHS is committed to ensuring that reports of abuse are investigated and handled urgently.”After an inspection of the facility last year, the Department of Human Services cited Meadows for violations regarding adequate treatment as well as not completing “appropriate discharge planning” for patients leaving the facility. The citation referred to one patient who was having suicidal ideations up to 24 hours before their discharge despite regulations saying they had to deny suicidal ideations for 72 hours before being discharged. In February 2022, the agency verified that Meadows had completed a “plan of corrective action,” the inspection report says.Eventually, after asking “every single nurse on the floor” for her medication, Beam said she was finally told the facility couldn’t find her medication.
‘Controlled chaos’
“They were putting profit before us and the patients,” Dawn Taylor, who worked as a nurse at the Meadows for nearly five years, told VICE News. “All they cared about is just filling beds—regardless of the safety issue, regardless of how patients were getting treated.”“It was almost embarrassing to say you worked there.”
Meadows is just one hospital owned by Universal Health Services, a multibillion-dollar, publicly traded healthcare company that has approximately 90,000 employees. Universal Health Services runs dozens of hospitals and operates 335 “behavioral healthcare inpatient facilities,” including Meadows—making it the largest chain of private psychiatric facilities in America. Universal Health Services did not respond to a detailed request for comment about the claims made against the Meadows center.“There were times when I just felt very unsafe. I know there were times when patients and other staff felt super unsafe.”
“God, I’m gonna get fired”
“It started as a passing joke, like yeah, we should definitely get a union. And then slowly, it started to become a reality.”
The same day Hencinski voted for the union, she put in her two-week notice while still wearing a mask bearing the SEIU’s colors; on her way home, she said, the facility called her and told her she wouldn't be needed for the last two weeks of work. When she questioned why she was being terminated early, she says, she was told only that Pennsylvania is an “at-will” state.Meadows employees will find out the results of their union election on Friday, when the NLRB holds a ballot count, NLRB spokesperson Kayla Blado told VICE News. But the problems at Meadows, employees allege, have remained. One employee still at Meadows told VICE News that morale is “nonexistent.” “A lot of the people they did fire were really, really good staff that brought morale up just because of their work ethic and their personalities,” the employee, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution, said. “They got rid of a lot of really important, strong mentors for new staff.”A current worker called the union vote “our last-ditch effort, honest to God,” to change the culture at Meadows. “If somebody signs up to try to take care of other people, they don’t deserve to get maimed in the process,” said the worker, who also requested to stay anonymous due to concerns of retaliation.“If somebody signs up to try to take care of other people, they don’t deserve to get maimed in the process.”
The company has recently begun to address the staffing shortage, another pro-union employee said—but by using “traveling nurses” who are contracted with an agency rather than employed by Meadows. “I feel guarded and threatened,” another employee, also anonymous due to concerns of retaliation, said. “Everything [management] does, they put fear in people. And I hope they realize that fear is the biggest motivator for [joining] a union.” “It’s more like a dictatorship, like North Korea, and they’re Kim Jong Un,” the employee added. “They tell us what to do, and we do it. And if not, we get executed and they find another body.” As for the patients, Hencinski doesn’t see them getting the standard of care they deserve unless major changes are made at Meadows. “People pay a lot of money to come here to get the help that they need to get stabilized and then move on with their lives,” she said. “A lot of our patients walk out of there even more traumatized than before they got in there.”This story has been updated to include comment from the Department of Human Services.Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.“They tell us what to do, and we do it. And if not, we get executed and they find another body.”