State Probes Sex Incident at County Mental Hospital

State health officials are investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident involving improper sexual contact between a patient and a private laboratory worker at San Diego County’s Hillcrest mental health hospital, it was learned Wednesday.

Ernest Trujillo, head of state Department of Health Services licensing division here, confirmed that his office is investigating the incident at the hospital.

“We’re aware of the situation and we’re looking into it,” Trujillo said. “Basically it happened. Apparently the facility is taking appropriate steps to prevent it from recurring.”

Trujillo refused to provide details about the incident and would not say if it could affect the hospital’s efforts to show it has made substantial improvement since state and federal health authorities warned in August that the facility could be closed if a pattern of poor patient care and bad management was not reversed. The hospital is awaiting word from state and federal health officials on whether it will continue to be licensed and allowed to receive reimbursement for treating poor, mentally ill patients.

According to a source at the hospital, the latest incident occured Sunday. A female patient was discovered by nurses performing a sexual act on a male who was not a county employee but worked at the hospital picking up blood specimens to be delivered to laboratories.

David Janssen, the county’s acting chief administrative officer, said he did not believe the case would hurt the hospital’s chances of keeping its state and federal certification.

“There are incidents of all kinds in that type of facility and there always will be,” Janssen said. “The question is how did the staff respond to the incident? My understanding is they responded properly and adequately, so I don’t think it will cause any problem.”