CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — A series of incidents involving security personnel at Adena Regional Medical Center has raised concerns about the treatment of patients.
On May 26, a woman claimed she was rushed out of the hospital by security before she was even dressed. According to a report provided by the Ross County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were called to the Emergency Department for a patient who allegedly wouldn’t leave.
The woman stated that she was discharged and that the hospital usually gives her 15 to 25 minutes to leave the room. However, she claimed that Adena’s security became hostile and continued to ask her to leave. She told deputies that she was not properly dressed and that security personnel refused to leave the room so she could dress herself.
The deputy noted in the report, “I advised (patient name redacted) that this was not a criminal incident however she continued to demand a report be filed.”
This is not the first claim of excessiveness by Adena Security. Earlier this year, security handcuffed a young child inside the ER who was in the midst of a behavioral emergency. Many at the time found the sight of a young child, in handcuffs, being forcefully escorted through the emergency department disturbing.
In a separate case from February of this year, a family claimed security accosted them and their teen daughter after they went to the hospital to seek help for a mental health emergency.
The family released a statement to the Guardian regarding their incident. They said, “So the security guard asked my husband while he was asking the nurse to check our daughter out, said to my husband, “Is that your daughter walking down the road?” My husband looked and said yes. The security guard yelled some kind of code over the phone, and they all took off running towards my daughter and her boyfriend. So my husband comes out and says, “What are they doing?” I said she wanted to go with her boyfriend’s grandma anyway.
My husband and I got back in the car and went down on the road. When we get there, we see a 300-pound security guard tackle a 120-pound 17-year-old boy, face-planting him into the ground. My husband said, “That’s not right,” and jumped out of the car and pulled the security guard off her boyfriend. Then the security guard and a male nurse jumped on my husband and started to pin him on the ground of hospital property.”
These incidents have raised serious questions about the conduct of security personnel at Adena Regional Medical Center. The hospital has yet to comment on these allegations.