St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Shuts Down Operations and Patient Care Amid Crisis

PHOENIX — St. Luke’s Behavioral Health Center has been ordered by state authorities to suspend operations and cease patient care, as reported by 12News. This decision follows a wave of complaints from former and current employees regarding inadequate facility conditions.

Patients were recently relocated after the air conditioning system failed. A former employee indicated to 12News that the facility had been experiencing shortages of essential supplies, impacting resident care significantly.

According to a spokesperson from Steward Health, the parent company, the air conditioning outage occurred late last week. Despite this, the last patient wasn’t relocated until Saturday morning. “We are alarmed at the state of Arizona’s arbitrary decision,” the statement from Steward Health remarked. They criticized the state for its handling of the situation amid existing shortages of critical behavioral health services.

Cassandra Bizon, a former employee who worked at St. Luke’s for four years before being dismissed, expressed that the facility’s maintenance had been severely lacking. She disclosed that staff members resorted to bringing supplies from home to meet basic patient needs.

“Employees were out of hygiene products for several weeks, and we had to bring in cups for patients,” Bizon said, illustrating the dire circumstances within the facility. Furthermore, she had to consider reporting the situation to the Department of Health to prompt action on supply issues.

Another anonymous employee mentioned that conditions inside the facility remained uncomfortable, with temperatures reaching between 85 to 90 degrees due to the broken air conditioning system. Uncertainty looms as Steward Health Care has recently filed for bankruptcy and intends to sell off its hospitals nationwide.

The situation has attracted federal attention; the Steward Health CEO is set to testify before Congress amid an ongoing investigation by the Senate Health Committee. Additionally, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has announced her office will be investigating the bankruptcy proceedings as well.

In a Tuesday statement, Steward Health Care announced that they would be transferring all patients out of St. Luke’s and encouraged employees to continue working, but emphasized that it was not mandatory. They claimed the supply issues were prevalent before the bankruptcy filing and expressed hope for a swift repair of the HVAC system.