Top Managers Removed From Essex County Hospital

A July inspection report on the Essex County Hospital Center in Cedar Grove resulted in the firing of its medical director and the reassignment of the acting hospital director, the Star-Ledger reported.

The Star-Ledger obtained a copy of that confidential inspection report, which criticizes the psychiatric hospital for unfocused care giving and a lack of leadership made apparent on several fronts, including 11 cases of patients being left alone in restraints for hours, staff members failing to sterilize equipment and administer medication properly and errors in record keeping such as one in which a choking patient was on record as ready for discharge but was in fact dead.

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo immediately addressed the leadership issue, firing the medical director, transferring the acting hospital director as well as four lower-level employees and hiring a new acting director, Frank DelGaudio, to assemble a leadership team, the article said.