news-record.com

GOLDSBORO (AP) — A health consultant's report says a North Carolina mental hospital where a patient died and others were beaten had leadership problems and was dysfunctional.

The report on Cherry Hospital was released Tuesday by the state Department of Health and Human Services and it didn't recommend firing anyone. The Ohio-based Compass Group was hired by the state for $90,000 to examine conditions at the hospital where regulators cut off federal funding.

State officials said in mid-August that a patient died in April after choking on medication and being left sitting in a chair for nearly 24 hours over the course of four work shifts. Security cameras from the room where the man sat captured staff members playing cards and watching television.

Two staff members also were accused of beating a different patient in August.

Consultants said the hospital's top managers communicated poorly with employees they supervised and rarely visited patient wards to check on care.

The report also said hospital employees didn't trust their leaders and hesitated to report problems because they feared retribution.

Consultants visited the hospital Sept. 10 through 12. Cherry Hospital lost $800,000 a month in federal payments, which the state now has to absorb.

The report said management at the hospital needs "to alter the culture and become a more effective leadership team."

Employees also expressed personal concerns.

"Even the biggest and most loyal employees expressed a sense of fear for their personal safety" and senior leadership ignored the need for improving procedures to deal with combative patients, the report said.

"There seems to be little pride in working for the hospital. Long-term employees express embarrassment over the newspaper articles and admit to not wearing their badges in public," the report said.

Cameras installed in public areas of the hospital have created a sense of suspicion among employees, the report said.