LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — The Palm Beach County hospital where a nurse was brutally attacked by a patient last month is making plans to increase law enforcement presence there.
Starting Monday, HCA Florida Palms West Hospital said it will have a dedicated workspace for Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies in its emergency room.
WATCH BELOW: Palms West Hospital adding work station for deputies
"This work station provides deputies a space to complete paperwork and access resources without returning to the main office while enhancing law enforcement presence at the hospital," Louis Lochte, the spokesman for HCA Florida's East Florida Division, said in an email to WPTV. "We will also continue to use our security firm and have plans to add additional contracted PBSO deputies.”
WPTV replied with the following questions, but Lochte said he was unable to answer them at this time:
- How long has this plan been in the works? Did discussions for the workstation begin after the attack on nurse Leelamma Lal, or before?
- What will the workstation primarily be used for?
- How will this benefit overall safety at the hospital?
- Will there be dedicated deputies staffing the hospital?
- Does HCA Florida have dedicated workstations for law enforcement at other hospitals? If so, which hospitals? Are there plans to install more hospital workstations for law enforcement?
Stephen Scantlebury, the patient accused of attacking Lal, was under a psychiatric hold at Palms West and was in a patient room on the third floor — not in the ER.
WPTV requested an interview with Sheriff Ric Bradshaw about the new workstation. A sheriff's office spokeswoman said in an email that the agency will meet with the hospital's CEO next week.
"The space has been set aside for us to stop by and do reports if we can," the spokeswoman said. "The meeting to hire deputies off duty is scheduled for next week."
"It's definitely a step in the right direction, and it definitely helps," Christie Jandora, the president-elect of the Florida Emergency Nurses Association, said. "Is it 100% a prevention measure? Absolutely not."
Jandora and other ENA members who spoke with WPTV welcome a law enforcement presence in the emergency room but say more needs to be done to prevent violence in hospitals.
"I think that goes back to there's just not enough mental health resources or facilities to really care for the amount of mental health patients there are out there," Jandora said. "When they're not at facilities that have all the right safety things in place, it puts everybody at risk."
