West Virginia Court Lifts Contempt Order Related To State Hospital Staffing
On August 1, 2014, a state judge released the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) from a contempt of court order to improve state hospital employee salaries and staffing ratios to comply with the terms of the long-running E.H. v. Matin consent decree (referred to as the “Hartley” case) related to the adequacy of state mental health services and conditions at the state psychiatric hospitals.
On April 29, 2014, the judge had ordered DHHR to develop a plan by June 11 to correct staff vacancies at the Mildred Mitchell Bateman Hospital in Huntington and William . . .