A new report issued Wednesday by Disability Rights DC, the District’s federally mandated protection and advocacy program, alleges a pattern of “disturbing abuse and neglect” of patients at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington, the only private for-profit psychiatric hospital in D.C.

“Numerous patients have reported to Disability Rights DC that they did not feel safe at PIW,” the new report reads. “Patients have told Disability Rights DC that they were admitted to PIW for treatment, but their stay left them traumatized, or even physically injured.”

Just over one year ago, Disability Rights DC issued another report alleging staff abuse and neglect at PIW, a 130-bed facility in Tenleytown that offers inpatient, outpatient, and partial hospitalization programs. The report described a lack of oversight and “very disturbing specific and systemic failures” at PIW, and claims staff failed to act after finding an unresponsive patient, who died shortly after.

Andrea Procaccino, an attorney with Disability Rights DC, said while the reports are similar, the 2021 report was based primarily on patient allegations, along with one videotaped incident of the moments leading up to the patient’s death. She said more PIW patients and stakeholders came forward after the 2021 report, which prompted further investigations.

The 43-page report issued Wednesday is backed up by several videotaped incidents that Disability Rights DC obtained as part of its investigations. It includes descriptions and tracings of the footage, all of which the group says reveal “disturbing staff conduct and significant abuse or neglect.” Actual video footage is not available to the public to protect patient privacy.

“We’re very alarmed. We’re talking about adolescents who are there for care and treatment, adults who are admitted for short term, usually a relatively short term psychiatric treatment,” Procaccino told DCist/WAMU. “They need to be in a safe place where they can get therapeutic care and be treated with dignity and respect.”

In response to a request for comment, PIW Interim Director of Business Development Bonita Bolden emailed DCist/WAMU a statement from the hospital.

“At the Psychiatric Institute of Washington (PIW), we are dedicated to caring for and treating patients with compassion, dignity and respect,” the statement reads. “Incidents (or occurrences noted) are self-reported by PIW, and have been investigated by regulatory authorities per standard procedure. PIW institutes operational changes accordingly.  Due to HIPAA patient privacy laws, we cannot comment on specific patients or their care.”

Footage detailed in the report shows multiple staff members using “unauthorized physical restraint techniques,” resulting in one patient, Sarah Simpson, falling and hitting her head on the floor. (Like all names used in the report and repeated in this story, Simpson’s is a pseudonym.) The report also states that staff failed to document the incident and did not offer timely medical care to Simpson, despite possible head and arm injuries she sustained afterwards.

The report also describes footage of a male staff member dragging a female patient, Maria Peters, across the floor twice before pushing her into a room.

“Ms. Peters reported that she was crying throughout the encounter and asking to call her family, and that the male staff person demanded that she get up from the floor and called her ‘disgusting’ several times,” the report reads.

Peters recalled she was fearful that the staff person was going to sexually assault her, according to the report.

In addition to improper physical restraint, staff also allegedly administered drugs to restrain patients without their consent and in violation of D.C. law.

A patient reported being forcibly injected with medication despite telling staff she did not want the injection. The report says while the patient was noted as “irritable,” “threatening,” and “cursing” leading up to the injection, there was no evidence she was an imminent threat, or that staff considered or tried less restrictive alternatives to the injection, as is required by D.C. law.

Another patient, Jane Pearson, described in the report an April 2022 incident in which she was restrained by multiple staff members and forcibly injected with medication, “after she became upset and wanted to speak to her doctor.” She described the incident as a “traumatic experience.”

Footage also shows staff failing to intervene when patients grew violent with each other, the report says, resulting in one adolescent patient being stabbed in the face. Disability Rights DC said it reviewed more than hour of footage of the adolescent unit where the stabbing occurred, in which there was “a striking lack of staff presence and effective staff intervention.” The report also notes that PIW staff called police to arrest the patient who stabbed the adolescent, which “clearly distressed and disturbed the patients” in the unit.

The hospital was founded in 1967 by six psychiatrists at George Washington University and was the first in a chain of for-profit hospitals by the Psychiatric Institute of America. PIW’s statement notes that the facility “has cared for thousands of patients over the years, delivering evidence-based, trauma-informed care that provides meaningful clinical outcomes to patients, helping them in their care journey.”

The owner of PIW is Universal Health Services, a for-profit company based in Pennsylvania. The group is also one of four companies facing an investigation for alleged child abuse at its treatment facilities, launched last week by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)

Universal Health Services did not respond to a request for comment on the Wednesday report.

One of Disability Rights DC’s recommendations is that PIW should have an outside consultant “specializing in trauma informed care and the reduction and the reduction and prevention of dangerous incidents in institutional settings.”

It also calls on DC Health and the Department of Behavioral Health to provide more rigorous oversight of the hospital, echoing a recommendation from the 2021 report. Neither department responded to requests for comment.

“It just can’t keep going on like this,” Procaccino said.