Southwest Memorial Hospital has met all settlement agreements, including cultural sensitivity training, stemming from a 2010 civil rights incident, according to state officials.
The Colorado Civil Rights Division filed a lawsuit against Southwest Memorial Hospital in 2012, accusing the Cortez medical facility of turning away a Ute Mountain Ute woman who went to the hospital in 2010 after she was raped. A subsequent legal settlement in the case required Southwest Memorial Hospital to submit annual reports to the Colorado Civil Rights Division.
"The hospital was obligated to submit documentation to us in 2013 and 2014 to demonstrate their progress," Steven Chavez, the state's civil rights division director, recently told The Cortez Journal. "They have done that."
According to sources familiar with the incident, hospital officials refused to provide medical treatment for the woman, because Indian Health Services had failed to reimburse the hospital for indigent care. The hospital has denied any wrongdoing, and the civil rights complaint was withdrawn as a result of the agreement, according to officials.
Monitored by the state civil rights division for the past two years, the hospital was ordered to institute cultural competency training, strengthen its non-discrimination policies and procedures and conduct community outreach and public education efforts as a result of the state's landmark civil-rights settlement, Chavez said.
"Cultural awareness is key to developing strong, creative and inclusive solutions to the problems faced by our state and our communities," Chavez said. "It is also critical to capitalizing on the many opportunities in front of us. The more understanding and awareness there is among the different groups that comprise our communities, the better the outcomes."
Multiple questions emailed on Monday, May 26, to the hospital's director of compliance and risk management - seeking a description of new hospital policies and procedures, whether Ute Mountain Ute tribal members had been added to the hospital board along with the rates and types of cultural diversity training offered to hospital employees, to name a few - have gone unanswered.
After its investigation into the 2010 incident, the Colorado Civil Rights Division found a persistent problem with Native Americans being turned away from the hospital.
Last month, hospital officials declined to comment after the family of a Navajo man filed a notice of intent of a wrongful-death claim against the hospital and the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office. Harrison M. Begay, 38, of Tonalea, Ariz., died in a jail holding cell on Sunday, Oct. 27, after being medically cleared by the hospital just hours before.
Chavez declined to comment on the Begay case.
"It wouldn't be appropriate for us to respond," he said. "It's a matter for the courts to weigh and decide."
tbaker@cortezjournal.com
