Gov. Beverly Perdue said today she will seek legislation to publicly disclose information about patients who die in state mental hospitals and homes for the developmentally disabled, including their names and explanations of how they died.
If approved by legislators, the change would be a major reversal in policy affecting the state Department of Health and Human Services, Michael Biesecker reports.
The department has argued that a little-known patient privacy statute exempts state hospitals from releasing such information.
Perdue spoke by video today to a conference of the N.C. Open Government Coalition in Charlotte. The governor's message was taped Tuesday in a Raleigh television studio.
"I've decided I would rather tell the truth, even when it's bad news, than hide behind the protection of law," Perdue said.
On the same day the governor taped her statement, DHHS officials used the law Perdue said she would change to block the release of information about a female patient who died last week at a state developmental center in Goldsboro.
DHHS spokespeople this week said they could not say how the woman died, though a criminal investigation is under way and regulators determined the state-run home violated federal standards for patient care in the case.
More after the jump.
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The governor said she will seek to release key information about such patients, including:
* The name, sex, age and date of birth of the deceased;
* The name of the facility providing the report;
* The date, time and location of the death;
* A brief description of the circumstances of death, including the manner of death if known; and
* A list of all entities to whom the event was reported.
Perdue's office said that Attorney General Roy Cooper joins her in pursuing the legislation, which has the support of DHHS.
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