Psychiatric hospital company Universal Health Services fired one employee it suspected of talking to a reporter and threatened others, according to a story from Rosalind Adams of BuzzFeed.
Adams writes, “It was just one of many measures the hospital giant took to counter our two-year investigation, which revealed internal surveillance videos of UHS employees choking and dragging patients and which led the state of Oklahoma to investigate a UHS hospital executive for abuse and neglect, and to cut off state funding.
“To deal with our series, UHS didn’t just implement a crisis PR plan. It also fired an employee that the company believed to have spoken to a reporter; it sued a former employee it alleges leaked damaging internal surveillance videos; it threatened to sue other employees; at least one facility held a series of town hall meetings to warn employees from speaking with us; it conducted “in-depth interviews” with nearly two dozen staff, then distributed a public apology that two of them signed; it enlisted one of the most powerful law firms in the United States; it built multiple, high-production-value websites specifically designed to overcome the reputational damage that our reporting might cause.
“In a statement, UHS disputed our coverage, as it has in the past, calling it sensationalized and based on anecdotes that aren’t representative of the quality care it provides overall.”
Read more here.
