ATASCADERO -- Your Central Coast News is learning more about a faulty alarm system that prompted a lockdown at Atascadero State Hospital.
The lockdown is now in its second day.
In the event of an emergency, employees at Atascadero State Hospital are supposed to set off an alarm, but recently that emergency response system malfunctioned.
It is currently undergoing repairs due to a glitch in the hard drive.
"In this case, the audio on our emergency system was malfunctioning, so we were not able to pinpoint, other than general locations, the exact location of an emergency," said Jon De Morales, Acting Deputy Director of Operations for Atascadero State Hospital.
Since the alarm system is out of service, the hospital is in lockdown mode.
"The patients are confined to the residential units, staff are also confined to the residential units, and they will move with the patients to provide a heightened level of supervision," said De Morales.
Hospital officials say the faulty alarm system is not related to a recent string of violent assaults.
There have been three since Sunday.
Two patients have been arrested.
29 year old Azubuike Okwara was arrested for assaulting a hospital police officer, Monday.
51 year old Robert Morgan was arrested for assaulting another patient, on Monday as well.
"We feel our members safety and the safety of our patients depend on these alarms working and working reliably and consistently," said Brady Oppenheim, a consultant for the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians.
Employees say fixing the current alarm system is not enough.
They are pushing for a new one all together.
According to the California Association of Psychiatric Technicians, a psych tech was killed last year at Napa State Hospital when her alarms did not work -- and that facility received a new system.
"We also sought state budget funding for other state hospitals, including ASH for alarm system improvements, but budget funding for those other hospital alarm improvements was cut," said Oppenheim.
"We're currently in the process of planning to replace this system with more state of the art emergency alarm systems," said De Morales.
Hospital officials say there is a back-up alarm system in place, while the computer is being worked on.
If all goes as planned, things will be back to normal on Wednesday morning.
Robert Morgan (ASH patient charged with assaulting another patient, Monday)
Azubuike Okwara (ASH patient charged with assaulting staff member, Monday)
