Austin state hospital findings is bad for all
You would think the agencies that handle health matters for the state would take care of health hazards in their own buildings. We’re not talking about falling ceilings, droopy drywall or loose carpets, here. The state of Texas has loads of real estate that isn’t properly maintained. No, this time we’re talking about a repellent, awful, gross workplace. Rats. Creepycrawlies. Mold. Mold on a computer wrist rest at the Austin State Hospital 636 building. The response to this has been completely and discouragingly predictable. After The Texas Tribune’s Marissa Evans wrote about the conditions at the Austin State Hospital’s 636 Building, the Department of State Health Services relocated 127 employees. But someone handed Evans a recording of an agency “town hall” where DSHS Commissioner John Hellerstedt told employees there was no health risk. “That was not an unsafe environment,” Hellerstedt said. “It was an undesirable environment, it was an unsustainable environment, it wasn’t a place where we should expect people to continue to work … I absolutely guarantee you if I thought for a minute that there was a danger, that it was an unsafe environment, we would have really hit the fire alarm and had everyone leave the building.” Read stories like this and more in your latest edition of The Ennis News. Be informed, subscribe today!






