Michigan moved to revoke Kalamazoo Behavioral Health's license over patient falls

Michigan's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs issued a notice of intent on September 9, 2026 to revoke the license of Kalamazoo Behavioral Health Hospital after investigators found continued noncompliance with licensure rules centred on patient falls, injuries and supervision. Patients were taken from the facility to another hospital at least 57 times between January and May; LARA is investigating 43 of those transfers, 24 in April and May alone — 10 involved falls with injury and assault, and 14 involved falls, unexplained injury or unresponsive patients.

The state's letter describes one patient designated a fall risk who was supposed to be checked every five minutes, was left alone for about an hour, fell and was injured badly enough to be hospitalised. In a separate September 2 incident, a patient fell around 3 a.m., fractured his hip and femur and hit his head; the night shift did not document it, staff notes described him walking through the morning, and security video never showed him leaving his room. The severity surfaced about eight hours later — the fall behind the son's September complaint.

Regulators also said the hospital failed to provide a root-cause analysis for the volume of falls and that patients were not checked as often as required, and LARA identified noncompliance with federal Conditions of Participation. Owner Neuropsychiatric Hospitals and CEO Tim Radabaugh did not respond to News Channel 3's requests for comment. The hospital may continue operating while the case proceeds to the administrative hearing set for October 14, 2026.

Notice of intent to revoke the state license issued 9 September 2026; 57 patient hospital transfers in five months with a revocation hearing set for 14 October.

Staff left a known fall-risk patient alone for about an hour against a five-minute check requirement, and he fell and was hospitalised.

The night shift never documented a 3 a.m. fall that fractured a patient's hip and femur; the severity surfaced only about eight hours later, via another worker.

Security footage contradicted the hospital's own notes — video never showed the patient leaving his room — undercutting the record the facility relied on.

The facility offered no root-cause analysis for the volume of falls and skipped required patient checks, so regulators saw continued noncompliance rather than a corrected problem.

In supervised care, the interval between checks is the product: skipping a five-minute rounding schedule for one hour produced the fall that triggered license revocation proceedings.

The hospital keeps operating while the process runs: the notice of intent issued September 9, 2026, an administrative hearing set for October 14, 2026, and a final decision on the license to follow. LARA keeps the facility under active investigation. Owner Neuropsychiatric Hospitals and CEO Tim Radabaugh did not respond to repeated requests for comment. A Cooley Law School professor uninvolved in the case called the number of incidents — escalating over five months — extreme for a facility charged with protecting vulnerable patients.