Bev Perdue pays surprise visit to scene of assaults, neglect

From the Raleigh News & Observer:

North Carolina governor Bev Perdue spoke with administrators, workers and patients at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro Friday. She said in a statement that she had let managers know she has “raised the bar” for patient care. Perdue had promised during her campaign to check in personally on institutions that have drawn national attention for neglect and abuse. An excerpt:

The federal government has stopped insurance payments to [Cherry] hospital because inspectors deemed it dangerous.

Staff largely ignored a dying man who sat in a chair for nearly a day without food in April of last year. While the hospital was under scrutiny for neglect that led to the patient’s death, two workers beat a patient and threatened a witness last August.

… The state has had problems with all of its mental hospitals in the last two years, with the federal government threatening to stop paying for patient treatment at all five hospitals the state operated during that time.

See News & Observer series on the state’s mental institutions:

Mental disorder: The failure of reform

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 3:26 pm and is filed under abuse, hospitals, neglect. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.