In the 1978 movie “Animal House,” there’s a scene where a young ROTC cadet played by Kevin Bacon keeps screaming, “Keep calm! All is well!” even as he’s being trampled by a mob of rioting townspeople. It’s hard not to think about that scene when evaluating how the Colorado Department of Human Services is responding to a staffing shortage at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo.

CMHIP’s staffing situation was so dire that the federal government threatened to withhold Medicare funding for the hospital last June unless significant improvements were made. At the time, there were 97 vacancies in the hospital’s 723 patient care positions.

Fast forward to last week, when CDHS Executive Director Reggie Bicha met with our editorial board. Bicha confidently informed us that the hospital’s staffing crisis had “stabilized.” When we asked how many positions remained unfilled, a department spokeswoman let us know that there were 113 vacancies.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.