Anoka psychiatric hospital put on lockdown after man threatens self-immolation

Anoka Metro Regional Treatment Center, the state's second largest psychiatric hospital, was put on lockdown Friday after a man claiming to be a former patient doused his body with gasoline and threatened to set himself on fire inside the main entrance.

Hospital staff and police said the 36-year-old man walked through the front doors about 9:50 a.m. carrying a gas can and lighter, poured gasoline over himself, and then told the switchboard operators that he would light himself on fire. The man was demanding better housing, mental health care and other social services, police said.

The 110-bed hospital was put on a "Code Orange" alert, the highest level, with no one allowed to leave or enter, until the man was talked to outside by a doctor and tackled by several police officers. After police took the man's lighter and stripped him of all his gas-soaked clothing, he was taken by ambulance to Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

The lockdown lasted about 45 minutes and no one was hurt.

"He was talking about housing issues, mental health issues, a whole gamut of things," said Anoka Police Capt. Scott Nolan. "He was really escalating things."

The incident comes as state and union officials struggle to bring violence and a rash of workplace injuries under control at the hospital, which treats some of the most psychiatrically complex people in the state. The state-run facility was threatened early this year with the loss of millions of dollars in federal Medicare and Medicaid funding after federal inspectors found multiple violations of patient care and safety standards.

Jacklene Spanjers, a licensed practical nurse at Anoka Metro and president of the AFSCME union local that represents about 250 workers there, said she was working in her office in the hospital's administration building when she was told to evacuate to a nearby building. The "Code Orange" alert was spread by mouth and by walkie-talkie, because staff feared that using the hospital's intercom might agitate the man, she said.

A month ago, Spanjers testified at a state legislative hearing about the increasingly dangerous working conditions at Anoka Metro. The hospital has been forced to accept more violent patients since a 2013 law took effect requiring the state to find a psychiatric bed within 48 hours for anyone in a county jail who is determined by a judge to be mentally ill.

In January, nearly 40 percent of the patients admitted to Anoka Metro came from jails, up from 13 percent in 2013.

Meanwhile, the number of injuries reported by Anoka Metro staff to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has surged, from 38 cases in 2013 to 72 cases in 2015.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) is seeking a huge infusion of new money — $177 million — to expand capacity and improve treatment at Anoka Metro and other state-operated psychiatric facilities, which agency officials say have been underfunded for years.

To retain critical federal funding, DHS is collaborating with Medicare and Medicaid on a plan to improve conditions at Anoka Metro. The agency expects to finalize that plan by the end of this month.