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Patsy Christian has a new job.

Christian was forced to step down as director of a state mental hospital in June 2008 after reports that she spent government money intended to help patients to commission an oil painting of herself.

But she landed softly. Dempsey Benton, then secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services created a new job especially for Christian, where she was tasked with improving "overall quality management in the area of nurse training across the system and compliance with regulatory requirements," according to a department spokesman.

The job paid $114,056, a cut of just 5 percent from the $119,759 she was paid as hospital director.

Now Christian has been assigned as a "special executive" at the Division of Health Service Regulation, the state agency that oversees health care facilities and investigates complaints of patient abuse and neglect.

Renee McCoy, spokeswoman for DHHS, said Christian's new responsibilities include developing disaster readiness plans for state mental hospitals.

She is paid $117,193 a year, according to state records.

The SBI has ended its probe into the purchase of portrait by former state mental hospital director Patsy Christian without action.

The investigation was requested by the state Department of Health and Human Services in June following reports in The News & Observer about a painting of herself that Christian commissioned from J. Lee Harris, a hospital nurse who sidelined as an artist, reports Michael Biesecker.

The artwork was paid for using vending machine revenue from John Umstead Hospital that the state budget manual says should be spent to benefit patients.

Following public uproar about the portrait, Christian resigned her position as chief executive officer of Central Regional Hospital in Butner and was reassigned to a newly created position within the department at 95 percent of her former salary.

DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton ordered that the portrait not hang in the new hospital for which it was commissioned and that state money paid for the artwork be recovered. Harris refunded the $572 she was paid for the "executive portrait" and its gilded frame.

Though state law explicitly forbids the awarding of state service contracts to state employees, Erik Hooks, an assistant SBI director, wrote in an Aug. 14 letter that he had concluded "no further inquiry by the SBI is necessary at this time."

More after the jump.

With yet another state mental hospital in danger of losing federal funding following a patient death, Dempsey Benton, head of the state Department of Health and Human Services, has tapped a familiar face to help fix the facility.

Patsy Christian, who was forced to resign in June as director of Central Regional Hospital in Butner after she commissioned a portrait of herself with money intended to benefit patients, was dispatched to Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro Tuesday following a critical report issued by regulators, reports Michael Biesecker.

Though an SBI investigation requested by Benton to determine whether Christian violated state purchasing laws is still unresolved, Benton said through a spokesman Wednesday that her 30 years as a nurse and hospital administrator qualified her to troubleshoot the problems at Cherry.

After she stepped down as director at Central, Benton created a new administrative position for Christian that kept her on the state payroll to “improve quality management and compliance with regulatory requirements.” Her salary is $114,056.

Two months after DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton asked the SBI to review the purchase of a portrait by former hospital director Patsy Christian, there is no word about when agents might wrap up their investigation.

Tom Lawrence, spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Monday that Benton has not yet received any response from investigators, Michael Biesecker reports.

Noelle Talley, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice, did not respond to inquiries last week about the status of the investigation.

Benton requested the SBI probe May 29, following a report in the N&O about the oil painting Christian commissioned of herself to hang at the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

The portrait, which cost a combined $571.98 once installed in a gilded frame, was painted on contract by a state employee who was subordinate to Christian and provided to the state at a steep discount of its proclaimed value.

The SBI was asked to examine the events surrounding the commission and purchase of the portrait to assure that no state laws were violated.

Benton said the state money spent on the portrait, which came from vending machine receipts meant to pay for field trips and other recreation for mental patients, would be recovered and that the painting would never hang in the new hospital.

Lawrence said the painting has been returned to the artist, who is a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital. A check equal to the portrait's cost was deposited into the hospital's account, though Lawrence said he did not know who the check was from.

Christian resigned as the director of Central Regional June 11. She is still on the state payroll in a new administrative position Benton created for her, earning $114,056 annually.

Update: Lawrence said Tuesday that a check reimbursing the state for the cost of the portrait was sent by J. Lee Harris, the artist who painted it. She is also a nurse supervisor at John Umstead Hospital and a former subordinate of Christian's.

Patsy Christian has gone from a gilded frame to a golden parachute.

Christian resigned her position last week as director of a new state mental hospital in Butner following N&O reports about a portrait of herself she commissioned with money intended to benefit patients, Michael Biesecker reports.

But the embattled administrator will remain on the state payroll at more than 95 percent of her former salary.

In a new position created just for her, Christian will work for the state hospital system "to improve overall quality management in the area of nurse training across the system and compliance with regulatory requirements," according to spokesman Mark Van Sciver of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

The department has not yet responded to a request for Christian's written job description.

Her new annual salary will be $114,056, down from the $119,759 she earned as hospital director.

An SBI investigation of the $572 payment Christian approved for the portrait, which was painted by a state nurse who is a subordinate, is ongoing.

The head of John Umstead Hospital is stepping down.

Patsy Christian, who faced criticism for commissioning a portrait of herself with state money and problems with patient abuse, is resigning as executive director, according to a release from the N.C. Department of Health and Human Serivces.

She will still work at the department, according to Secretary Dempsey Benton.

"We are appreciative of her dedication to serving the consumers in the state psychiatric hospitals over the years and her commitment to developing the plans to operate the new Central Regional Hospital," he said in a statement. "The state will greatly benefit from her continued involvement in the management of the hospitals."

Dr. Michael Lancaster, a board-certified child adolescent psychiatrist, will serve as interim director of the mental hospital. 

The state will not pay for a portrait of the director of the new Central Regional Hospital in Butner.

Dempsey Benton, head of the state Department of Health and Human Services, announced this afternoon that no state funds will be used to pay for a portrait that a department employee did of her boss, hospital director Patsy Christian.

Benton has also asked the State Bureau of Investigation to look into the events surrounding the painting to make sure no laws were broken.

"This was not a department-initiated action," Benton said in a statement. "There will be no state expenditure of funds for this painting, and I have directed that any funds thus far expended be reimbursed immediately to the state. This portrait will not be a state asset."

The painting was to hang in the new state psychiatric hospital.

Despite budget cuts and cost overruns at a state mental hospital in Butner, hospital Director Patsy Christian found money to have her portrait made.

The oil painting was done by a subordinate and paid for with $250 that was intended to benefit patients, Michael Biesecker reports.

Christian ordered the portrait for delivery shortly before the planned November 2007 opening of the hospital, which is intended as the centerpiece of an ambitious reform. But a fire, concerns over design flaws that endanger patient safety and the failure to hire enough qualified staff have kept Central Regional empty.

The portrait was paid for using the money collected from vending machines at John Umstead Hospital in Butner. State law says the money from vending machines should be used for recreational activities for patients. Christian, 60, oversees Umstead and Dix, which are scheduled to be closed next month.

Christian, whose annual salary is $119,759, declined requests for an interview.

Calls to the artist, J. Lee Harris, a nurse supervisor at Umstead were not returned.

In a statement attributed to Harris and released by the Department of Health and Human Services, the artist said the painting was a gift to the people of North Carolina and that the payment she received barely covered the cost of materials.

"Her unconventional beauty, her sense of humor and her blinding intelligence are engraved in my mind," Harris said of her boss. "I knew that with my skill and desire, I would create a painting to be enjoyed by many and become engaged with this historic moment."

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.