Kadlec employee accused of threatening to kill co-workers on his day off

An off-duty Kadlec employee allegedly threatened to kill himself and other hospital employees Monday.

Richland police provided more details about the threats that sent the hospital into lockdown and ended with a Kennewick man in jail.

Matthew N. Ganz, 51, walked into the hospital sometime before 7 p.m. and began talking to fellow co-workers about how he wanted to die by suicide and how he would kill others as well, said Lt. Chris Lee.

Witnesses reported seeing and feeling the outline of a gun in his pocket, but he never took it out and pointed it anyone.

Several people called 911 to report a man with a gun was at the hospital, and Richland police were on the scene within a minute and a half. He was gone before Richland and Kennewick police along with deputies from the Benton County Sheriff’s Office finished searching the hospital.

Police continued to hunt for Ganz until Kennewick officers found him about 40 minutes later on the 300 block of East Third Avenue drunk behind the wheel of his truck, police said.

He was booked into the Benton County jail for making threats, interfering with a health care facility and DUI.

Police are still trying to determine what prompted the threats, Lee said. His comments weren’t directed at a specific person, and while he made the comments to at least two people, it wasn’t directed at them specifically.

Ganz has lived in the Tri-Cities for more than 20 years, and he has no felony criminal history, according to public records search.

Police said the investigation is continuing, and that there is no threat to the public. Investigators are working with the help of mental health professionals.

Kadlec leaders thanked police, security and employees for their pro responded to the incident, hospital spokesman Jim Hall said. Counseling is being offered to caregivers affected by the threats.

These threats come on the heels of a pair of violent incidents at the Richland hospital where multiple employees were hurt by patients — and it further highlights the problem of workplace violence in health care.

In one incident, a patient allegedly hurt three nurses, a physician and a security staffer in an outburst in the emergency department.

In the other case, an ICU patient allegedly choked a nurse who was trying to change his IV.

Both patients were charged with assault.

After the incidents, the Washington State Nurses Association, or WSNA, called on Kadlec and other hospitals in the state to “ensure adequate staffing of nurses, other health care workers and security personnel, along with needed training on how to handle violent medical patients.”

WSNA surveyed its members about safety last year, with 86 percent of respondents saying they’d experienced or witnessed a violent incident, assault or threatening behavior at work, and 53 percent saying they viewed workplace violence as a serious problem.

An American Nurses Association survey of nurses and nursing students found that 25 percent of respondents had been physically assaulted at work by a patient or patient’s family member.

This story was originally published October 16, 2018 at 9:35 AM.