The director of Colorado’s psychiatric hospital in Fort Logan has left, but state officials are not saying why.
Employees have complained in recent months that the Colorado Mental Health Institute, once a military post in south Denver, was in disrepair. They complained of bedbugs, mouse droppings and bats at the facility.
A spokesman for the Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees the hospital and the state mental institution in Pueblo, would not comment on a “personnel matter.” The state has posted a job vacancy for director of the institute.
Former director Dr. Christopher Burke told the Denver Post in 2015 that as the number of beds at the hospital decreased, Fort Logan had been forced to admit only patients with the most severe illnesses.
A spokesman for the Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees the hospital as well as the state mental institution in Pueblo, would not comment on a “personnel matter.” and would not say how many management-level employees have recently left the hospital. The state has posted a job vacancy for director of the institute.
Former director that as the number of beds at the hospital decreased, Fort Logan had been forced to admit only patients with the most severe illnesses. Beds dropped from 222 to 94, yet the staff-to-patient ration did not change.
Five staff members per shift run each 24-patient unit. Employees recently complained to The Post that one of the units occasionally contained bats.
“One unit has had problems with bats,”confirmed state human services communications director Robert Thompson on Wednesday. “The campus itself is ancient. The bat thing, they take care of it every time. The health and safety of everyone there is paramount.”
Buildings at Fort Logan are more than 50 years old, Thompson said.
Major cuts at Fort Logan in 2010 and again in 2011, after severe economic downturn, closed units for children, adolescents and geriatrics, as well as a day program. The majority of patients at Fort Logan are involuntarily committed, meaning they were certified as incompetent by a court or were placed on 72-hour psychiatric holds by doctors who determined they were suicidal or homicidal.
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 jenbrown@denverpost.com or @jbrowndpost
