A Universal Health Services subsidiary was ordered to pay $535 million related to negligence charges filed after a 13-year-old patient was sexually assaulted by another patient at a psychiatric facility in Illinois, the for-profit health system said Monday in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
A Champaign County, Illinois, jury on Thursday awarded the patient punitive damages of $475 million and compensatory damages of $60 million, the “magnitude [of which] was unexpected and is unprecedented for a single-plaintiff injury case of this type in Champaign County, Illinois,” UHS said in the filing.
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The assault took place in 2020 at the Pavilion Behavioral Health System, a residential treatment facility in Champaign, Illinois, and UHS subsidiary. Pavilion denied any liability.
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based UHS, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, said in the filing it intends to appeal the verdict.
The $535 million judgment is roughly 3.8% of UHS’ 2023 annual revenue of $14.28 billion, which rose 6.6% year-over-year.
While Pavilion’s liability insurance will cover a portion of the verdict, the case’s outcome “may have a material adverse effect on the company,” UHS said in the filing.
