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In Deal, Academy Must Fix Problems

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By ADAM EMERSON

aemerson@tampatrib.com

Published: January 16, 2009

Updated: 01/16/2009 12:45 am

The state reached a settlement with troubled Tampa Bay Academy that allows its mental health center to admit children if it pays a $50,000 fine and meets every standard set by regulators.

Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration gave the academy six months to fix everything it found wrong when inspectors visited the academy last month. The settlement, released Thursday by state officials, even forces the Riverview center to fix problems inspectors did not cite.

If it wants to keep its license to operate, it can't even have a broken window.

As first reported on TBO.com, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration found "substandard" conditions at the academy's residential treatment program. Inspectors unearthed evidence that residents sexually preyed on workers and on each other - all made easier by the failures of a poorly trained and inadequate staff.

Fifty-four children were enrolled at the academy's treatment program, and all have been placed in other centers. A group home program and a charter school on the academy's campus were not affected by the agency's order.

While the settlement gives back the license, it restricts Tampa Bay Academy to admitting patients only gradually.

A snap inspection in the near future will show whether the academy is complying with the law and with the health care standards set by regulators.

If everything's OK, the treatment program can enroll up to 20 children during the next six months. After that, the state will remove all restrictions if it finds the academy repaired all that went wrong.

To meet those demands, the academy must increase its staff. Inspectors last month, and on several occasions during the past few years, found a lack of employees to treat children who suffered from severe mental illness. One inspection noted that some workers sometimes cowered behind closed doors.

But the academy laid off about 140 workers after it faced sanctions by the state and lost nearly a third of the children in its care.

Rich Warden, the academy's chief executive, said he hopes to eventually fill all the positions he emptied. He won't fill them with everyone he let go, however.

Some of the employees he fired contributed to the problems, he said. Warden said he wants to bring back those who performed well and recruit others who can handle the type of patients the academy enrolls.

Warden added, though, that the academy may begin enrolling a different type of patient.

"We might be a little more conservative with the type of child we might take," he said. "The more challenging, the more aggressive kids - we might be slow to admit."

The academy won't try to bring back the children it lost to other mental health centers, Warden said.

"It was disruptive for kids to move the first time," he said. "We wouldn't want to further disrupt their treatment."

Last week, Warden sent regulators a 470-page correction plan, assuring them the center will schedule enough workers and report incidents immediately to law enforcement when necessary.

In 2005, the academy made a similar plea to the Department of Children & Families, which then regulated the treatment center. DCF stopped the academy from admitting new patients for three months after finding many of the same problems the Health Care Administration found last month: inadequate staffing, abuse complaints and an alleged sexual assault on a patient.

Satisfied with the results of subsequent inspections, DCF later allowed the academy to resume admissions.

In its settlement agreement, the Health Care Administration said the academy "cooperated fully" with the efforts to remove its children. The settlement also notes the academy took some measures to improve the quality of its care before it was sanctioned.

Warden was hired as the chief executive in November, one month before regulators moved to suspend the academy's license.

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285.

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