Umstead Hospital could lose federal funds

bkrueger — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:31:06 -0500

Hospital investigators have recommended that the state's mental hospital in Butner lose federal money for failure to control patient violence.

A letter from state investigators to the hospital this week said that John Umstead Hospital "failed to prevent repeated incidents of patient to patient and patient to staff abuse," reports Lynn Bonner.

The hospital has not received a written report on the investigation, said Patsy Christian, the hospital's CEO, but has about three weeks to draw up a plan to correct deficiencies before money is cut off. Investigators cited problems with the hospital's governing body, patients' rights and nursing services.

Three of the state's four psychiatric hospitals have been threatened with loss of federal funds this year. In August, the federal government made the rare move of taking away money from Broughton Hospital in Morganton after one patient died after being restrained and another was seriously injured in a fall.

Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro was threatened with the loss of funding, but investigators accepted its correction plan.

Christian said Umstead did not have more violent incidents than other state psychiatric hospitals.

"We have good policies in place," she said.

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Umstead Hospital could lose federal funds