Recent reports and testimony about conditions at the state’s only two hospitals for people with serious mental illness paint a disturbing picture.

Osawatomie State Hospital has lost its certification for Medicare reimbursement. Both Osawatomie and Larned State Hospital are facing staffing shortages so severe that they likely threaten both patient care and employee safety.

And, at least at this point, it seems that the Kansas Department of Aging and Disability Services doesn’t have a good understanding of the problems or any solid plans to help resolve them.

Internal reports reviewed by the Topeka Capital-Journal last week indicated that more than half of the 390 to 400 employees in Larned’s nursing department had worked overtime in the past four weeks. At least 50 workers had worked more than 20 hours of overtime in each of those weeks and some had worked as much as 40 hours of overtime, doubling their intended work schedules.

The newspaper also obtained a recording of a Larned staff meeting at which Tim Keck, the new interim KDADS secretary, acknowledged that the nursing vacancy rate at Larned was about 40 percent. He said that department wanted to reduce that number to 18 percent — which would require hiring 62 mental health developmental disability technicians, 20 licensed practical nurses and seven nurses — but he offered few specifics about how the department planned to meet that goal.

Staffing also is an issue at Osawatomie, but Keck and his staff were unable to tell a legislative hearing last week exactly how severe the problem is. The department later reported that Osawatomie has a vacancy rate of 38.7 percent — 187 vacancies out of 483 positions. Keck also struggled to answer questions about how the agency will address staffing and other problems at Osawatomie. He did say that the department plans to apply for Medicare recertification and is planning to hire a consultant to help with that effort. Given the department’s apparent level of disarray on the state hospital situation, hiring a consultant probably is a good idea, but Keck’s estimate that recertification could be achieved in three to six months seems optimistic. In the meantime, Osawatomie is losing about $600,000 a month in Medicare reimbursements.

In Keck’s defense, he has only been in charge of KDADS since Jan. 1 and all indications are that he has stepped into a mess concerning the state mental hospitals. Nonetheless, he and his department need to understand the urgency of this problem and come up with solid strategies to address it. Providing adequate staff is essential. That likely will require the state to offer higher salaries and better working conditions. Filling staff vacancies, in itself, will improve working conditions by reducing overtime demands and providing a safer work environment.

The first step to solving any problem is to understand the issues involved. Recent reports don’t inspire much confidence that KDADS has a firm handle on what it will take to solve the serious problems at the state’s mental hospitals. That needs to change — and now.