Federal judge blasts Putnam treatment facility

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State revokes licenses of Putnam mental-health facility

State revokes licenses of Putnam mental-health facility
Lower Hudson Journal news, NY – Sep 4, 2008

SOUTHEAST – The state Office of Mental Health has revoked the operating licenses of a private mental-health facility that treats young adults at two residential centers in Southeast, ruling that the facility failed to correct repeated violations and that its owner and clinical director lied at an administrative hearing.

The ruling against SLS Residential Inc., a for-profit company, was issued Aug. 29. It revokes three operating certificates that SLS uses to run the treatment centers at two stately homes on North Brewster Road and off Putnam Avenue.

“SLS lacks the requisite character and competence to operate a program licensed by OMH,” the ruling said.

It was sent to Alfred Bergman, chief executive officer of SLS, and Joseph Santoro, a psychologist who is its chief operating officer. They did not return calls seeking comment yesterday.

SLS received the letter Tuesday and has 10 days from then to request an administrative hearing before the OMH to appeal the revocations. As of yesterday, SLS had not requested a hearing.

“It should be noted that OMH has worked assiduously in an attempt to assist SLS programs in achieving regulatory compliance by providing continuous feedback and technical assistance, but at this time OMH has no alternative but to revoke the above-referenced operating certificates,” Joan M. Halpin of OMH wrote in the ruling.

OMH spokeswoman Jill Daniels said the agency rarely revokes operating certificates.

“It’s not unprecedented, but it doesn’t happen all that often,” she said.

The ruling is the latest blow against SLS, also known as Supervised LifeStyles Inc., which operates out of offices in a plaza at Route 6 and Drewville Road.

The Office of Mental Health fined SLS $80,000 in November 2006 for eight violations that inspectors found during unannounced visits to the residential centers. A return visit Nov. 28, 2006, resulted in $30,000 more in fines for additional violations.

Among the violations state inspectors alleged were that SLS used illegal restraints on its patients long after it was told not to, that it administered sedatives to patients when they refused to take their medications and over their objections, and then hid the practice from the state, and that it failed to report troubling incidents to the state, including patients behaving suicidally and complaining of abuse by staff members.

SLS hired one of the nation’s largest law firms, Proskauer Rose, and fought the findings in a hearing that began in July 2007 and continued over 20 days through September 2007. Most such hearings last a week or less.

When state OMH Commissioner Michael F. Hogan in July adopted the hearing officer’s decision to uphold the fines, SLS appealed in court. That case is pending.

Reasons cited for the revocations include that SLS continues to use physical restraints on patients and that SLS officials either misled or lied to state officials.

“SLS owner, Dr. Joseph Santoro, and its clinical director, Dr. Shawn Pritchard, testified falsely in several instances at the administrative hearing,” Halpin, a registered nurse, wrote in her ruling.

Santoro testified that an SLS patient, Evan Marshall, was not receiving services from SLS in August 2006 while on a weekend pass to his mother’s Long Island home. During that visit, Marshall killed one of his mother’s Glen Cove neighbors and drove around with the woman’s severed head. Marshall, 32, is serving 29 years to life.

“Dr. Santoro testified that (Marshall) was not receiving licensed services from SLS at the time he committed a homicide, yet documents show that he was, in fact, receiving services from the SLS clinic until the time he was discharged because he was jailed for the homicide,” the ruling said.

The state also determined that Santoro ordered SLS workers to shred internal documents after OMH inspectors reviewed the documents and found several violations. The ruling also says Santoro testified that patients who wanted to leave SLS were not held against their will.

“OMH staff have continued to receive phone calls from former SLS residents who allege that they were required to stay at SLS even after asking to leave,” the ruling said.

If SLS does not appeal the ruling, the OMH decision will be considered final and SLS will have to surrender its operating certificates. The state would give SLS three months to transfer its clients to other facilities.

The violations for which the state fined SLS are similar to complaints that two New Jersey residents and former SLS patients made in a $225 million federal class-action lawsuit filed last year against various companies affiliated with SLS. Nicholas J. Romano and Deborah A. Morgan, both in their 20s, allege they were physically and emotionally abused while patients there. The lawsuit, filed by attorney Michael Sussman of Goshen, is pending in federal court in White Plains. Sussman could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Glen Feinberg, a Pleasantville lawyer who went to court to win the right to protest outside SLS sites over the poor treatment he thought his son got there in 2001 and 2002, said he was ecstatic with the OMH decision.

“It’s a tremendous relief to know that the years of abuse at SLS is coming to an end,” Feinberg said. “OMH has worked patiently with SLS to bring them into compliance with the law and basic human decency, and SLS has proven it is not capable of either. I commend the OMH for its diligence and hard work. I only hope that the Office of the [Professions], which regulates the licenses of people who run and work at SLS, take this report as seriously as the OMH has.”

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