Chief of Staff Sues Fairview State Hospital

COSTA MESA — Dr. William Cable, the chief of staff at Fairview Developmental Center, said in court papers that he was becoming increasingly concerned about his disabled patients who were being transferred to “ill-equipped” community group homes.

One mentally disabled patient became pregnant and had to be returned to the state hospital, another died in an emergency room before a cut could be treated, and others have drowned in bathtubs, the doctor said.

But when Cable challenged a system that placed some patients in “imminent danger,” his employers retaliated by transferring him to an asbestos-ridden office, then suspending him without pay for 10 days, he said in court documents.

Cable, who is a licensed neurologist, pediatrician and internist, fired back this month with a federal lawsuit against his employers, claiming $3 million in punitive damages.

On Wednesday, officials with Fairview and the state Department of Developmental Services declined to comment on Cable’s allegations, citing the pending litigation. Fairview is a state-run nursing facility that provides care to about 800 developmentally disabled people of all ages.

In his lawsuit, Cable is also asking U.S. Dist. Judge Gary L. Taylor to prevent state officials from transferring patients from Fairview and six other state developmental centers until officials can guarantee that their placements in private group homes are safe.

Placements of mentally disabled patients in private group homes began following a 1994 court order requiring that 2,000 developmentally disabled patients be transferred from seven state hospitals over the next five years.

The agreement resulted in a $330-million windfall for the Department of Developmental Services by “converting disabled clients from inpatients to outpatients,” Cable’s lawsuit states.

“By emptying the [state hospitals], the settlement represents a substantial benefit to owners and operators of private community housing for the developmentally disabled,” Cable said.

According to Cable’s suit, the placements have resulted in a practice known as “client shopping,” where owners of private community homes “are provided confidential medical information and are permitted to view clients” at the hospital.

Patients without parents and “the most docile as well as those whose mental or physical conditions renders them the least able to make informed decisions are targeted for community placement,” Cable said in the suit.

Cable, a former head of the neurology and psychiatry department at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, said he asked administrators to postpone transferring some patients who were not suitable for placement in group homes.

In one case before a patient was placed in a private group home, he asked that family members be contacted because regional centers are quick to transfer patients who have no parents, the lawsuit states.

Instead, his superiors reprimanded him, suspending him last October for 10 days without pay, Cable said in the suit.

Two months earlier, his bosses ordered workers to move his belongings and office to a windowless room in an “almost deserted building” on the hospital’s Harbor Boulevard campus, where workmen were removing asbestos-filled material.

Francis X. Hardiman, a Santa Ana lawyer and retired obstetrician who is representing Cable, said his client was simply “attempting to stop the retaliation that was occurring against doctors who were advocating patient rights. He was punished for trying to do the right thing,” Hardiman said.

Paul Verke, a spokesman with the Department of Developmental Services, said he could only say that the state attorney general’s office is reviewing Cable’s allegations.