I voluntarily sought help for substance-use treatment. After being cleared at St. Alphonsus, I voluntarily went to Northpoint Recovery. Staff there recommended a “higher level of care,” so I was transferred to St. Luke’s Hospital.  A social worker there suggested Intermountain Hospital in Boise, Idaho. I didn’t know it was a psychiatric facility and went along with the transfer.

Within hours of arriving at UHS-owned Intermountain Hospital in Boise, Idaho, on April 18, 2025, I revoked consent and asked to leave. According to the hospital’s own grievance response letters, staff refused to let me leave, withheld my belongings, and threatened the exact 72-hour administrative hold authorized by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare (§ 66-320). According to my friend, the hospital denied her attempt to visit even though she was dropping off my suitcase, and told her I was in “a group” and “very upset.” Despite my objection, the hospital kept me ~36–48 hours without ever filing any legal hold. 

My medical record contains a nurse’s note from April 19 stating I reported being “held against my will.” The same grievance letters acknowledge my accusations yet admit “no legal hold” was placed and still justify the continued confinement.

The Intermountain confinement caused me to develop documented PTSD: confinement-themed nightmares, waking up screaming, and unconscious CPAP removal during sleep (behavior that began only after this incident and fully resolved after trauma medication).

I have already exhausted every official avenue — multiple plaintiff firms (including the same firm that sued UHS in D.C. for the same pattern), DHW complaints, The Joint Commission, and public records requests — with no meaningful action.

The Joint Commission, which I complained to, has a documented history of keeping troubled psych hospitals fully accredited. A Wall Street Journal investigation found that Intermountain Hospital in Boise, Idaho, and over 100  psychiatric hospitals retained full accreditation despite serious safety violations, patient deaths, assaults, and poor discharge practices.

DHW must also be held accountable. DHW denied my complaint and ignored my request for a supervisory review. In addition, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare has investigated Intermountain for years for poor discharge practices linked to suicide risk reported by the Idaho Press in 2020, a 2019 sexual-assault complaint, and repeated rights deficiencies. I also requested and received the full contracts between DHW and Intermountain. They show the state paid Intermountain $2,750,000+ under the Community Hospitalization agreement for exactly these services — evaluation, stabilization, crisis care, and holds — and named Intermountain the state’s official “West Hub” provider. Thus, giving the hospital the very power it abused on me. Yet DHW continues this relationship despite years of patient rights complaints against the hospital. 

These patterns match the UHS coercion pattern exposed in the February 2025 D.C. class-action lawsuit and recent national reporting.

Sign this petition to demand:

•  A full independent investigation into Intermountain Hospital in Boise, Idaho

• Accountability for both UHS Intermountain and the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare

•  Reform of Idaho’s damages cap that shields these hospitals

Please share this widely. My story is not unique.

Thank you,

Daniel Felix

Nampa, ID