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00-2467 Hofflander v. St. Catherine's Hospital Inc.

By: dmc-admin//August 13, 2001//

00-2467 Hofflander v. St. Catherine's Hospital Inc.

By: dmc-admin//August 13, 2001//

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And, even though the hospital may not have specifically foreseen that plaintiff would enter another patient’s room, tear out the air-conditioning unit and escape out the window using bed sheets as a rope, we believe that Jankee v. Clark County, 2000 WI 64, recognizes that material issues of fact on the question of foreseeability of plaintiff’s likely elopement could exist.

This is so where there are indications in plaintiff’s medical records that plaintiff was angry and should be watched closely and that she had expressed plans to “flee.”

Further, even though it might be against hospital policy for plaintiff to enter another person’s room, we reject the hospital’s contention that a person involuntarily committed to a locked psychiatric unit was a trespasser in the legal sense and whether a loose air-conditioning unit, located in a room used by mentally disturbed patients, constitutes an unsafe condition under the safe place statute (Wis. Stat. sec. 101.11(1)) presents an issue of fact.

Reversed and remanded, with the exception of the trial court’s ruling that sec. 146.38 bars discovery of JCAHO materials, which ruling is affirmed.

Dist II, Kenosha County, Wagner-Malloy, J., Brown, J.

Attorneys:

For Appellant: Jerome A. Hierseman, Milwaukee

For Respondent: John A. Nelson, Milwaukee; John K. Hughes, Chicago, Ill.

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