TOPEKA — The state’s mental hospital in eastern Kansas would receive an additional $2.4 million in its current budget to help boost its staffing under a proposal from a legislative committee.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee added the money Monday for Osawatomie State Hospital as it debated other proposals for keeping the budget balanced through June 2017.
The Department on Aging and Disability Services reported last month that 187 of the 483 positions at the hospital were vacant.
The federal government decertified the Osawatomie hospital in December after a critical survey found that the hospital failed to protect suicidal patients, adequately supervise care or perform required safety checks.
The department says the decertification is costing the state between $500,000 and $1 million a month in federal funds.
