The head of John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth is now demanding answers from the company that maintains the elevators at the hospital, after a worker was hurt on an elevator earlier this month.
JPS CEO Robert Earley sent the letter to ThyssenKrupp Elevator Corporation explaining how the tragedy surrounding the worker who was hurt and unexpected elevator outages has impacted their ability to care for the community.
“This is unacceptable and jeopardizes the safety of our patients and team members,” Earley said in the letter.
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He reminded the company that JPS is the only Level 1 Trauma Center and the only psychiatric emergency room in Tarrant County.
“JPS deserves better. Our patients and team members deserve better,” Earley wrote. “In the past week, we had more unexpected elevator outages, just days after your service personnel were onsite checking every elevator. On Friday, January 25, 2019, seven elevators were out of service because of operational concerns.”
Earley explained that the elevator company “may have failed to live up to its service and maintenance obligations here at JPS. We have contracted with a third-party elevator consulting firm to provide oversight over elevator services."
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The letter also spells out further requests from JPS:
Because of these concerns, JPS will: (1) request, if necessary, that ThyssenKrupp provide a defense to JPS in connection with any litigation involving our injured team member and (2) seek indemnity for any damages incurred by JPS as a result of the January 20, 2019 incident. This includes, but is not limited to, cost and expenses incurred for the medical care of our injured team member, workers compensation, property damage, repair to the elevator at issue, any additional compensation paid by JPS to our injured team member, and any other costs or expenses incurred by JPS as a result of the Elevator Incident.
Read the entire letter HERE, or see it below.
On Tuesday, Earley sent a second letter to ThyssenKrupp requesting the presence of an elevator technician to be at the hospital as a Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation inspector visits the hospital for a review of the elevator in question.
In this second letter, Earley requested, for the second time, all documents from ThyssenKrupp involving the service and maintenance of all elevators at JPS. Earley cited the Texas Public Information Act to obtain these documents, since so far ThyssenKrupp has not fulfilled the hospital's original request. You can read the second letter from JPS HERE, or see it below.
NBC 5 has reached out to ThyssenKrupp for comment, but so far have not heard back.
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