Cottage Fined $100,000 for Failing to Stop Suicide

California’s Department of Public Health fined Cottage Health $100,000 for failing to prevent a 93-year-old patient from killing himself in Cottage’s psychiatric emergency room in 2015. The fine was announced in a press release mailed out December 28. Cottage was one of ten hospitals statewide named in the release; its fine was the highest of the ten.

According to Public Health documents, the patient — a 93-year-old minister with a long history of manic depression — was presented to the Cottage Emergency Room for suicidal thoughts and depression on August 7, 2015. At that time, the patient spoke openly about engineering a deliberate fall so he could sustain fatal head injuries. Initial screening documents indicated the patient was rated 13 as a suicide risk; eight is considered high.

During his stay at Cottage, the patient was shuttled between the regular emergency room to a special emergency room facility designed for those experiencing psychiatric crisis. There was talk of booking him into the hospital’s voluntary psychiatric wing — known as 5 East — but the facility was not equipped to manage such a fall risk. The patient’s suicidal thoughts continued unabated. He expressed “wanting someone from the hospital to help him exterminate himself in a way that won’t compromise their professional license or care.”