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Butner hospital ready
The Herald-Sun
Jul 20, 2008
It's not overstating the case to note that the new mental hospital in Butner has been fraught with controversy from the beginning.
Questions have been raised about the facility's safety and its mission. Gov.
Mike Easley's administration has been criticized, often with good reason, for adopting a flawed overall plan that shifted community mental health treatment to private agencies and consolidated hospitals.
Indeed, the controversies set off by Central Regional Hospital continued until the last moment, when a requirement for an outside inspection was removed from the state budget just before Gov. Easley signed it. And Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, the GOP candidate for governor, said major mental health issues, such as closing Dix Hospital in Raleigh, should wait for the next administration.
He has a point, but it's doubtful anyone will listen.
Despite debates and delays, Central Regional Hospital is expected to open Monday, with 200 patients to be transferred from John Umstead Hospital.
Juvenile patients will remain at Umstead, and Dix patients should also move soon.
State Rep. Jim Crawford, a Democrat who represents Granville and part of Vance counties, said the problems have been overblown.
He said the new facility should be compared to Dix and Umstead. "It looks like a castle in comparison," he told the News & Observer.
Indeed, many previously identified safety problems have been fixed, according to a report by state officials and outside experts. "The improvements were significant," the report said, adding, "the facility is significantly safer" than either Dix or Umstead.
We think it's time to put the second-guessing behind us. Officials know the challenges they face and the unmet needs of the state's struggling mental health patients.
Come 2009, a new administration in Raleigh may want to revisit mental health and reform the reforms.
But wherever the next steps take us, let's be proud of Central Regional Hospital. It will be with us for many years to come, playing a major role in treating state residents and as part of the community.
The opening will be a welcome sign of progress. Let's keep the momentum going.
C 2008 by The Durham Herald Company. All rights reserved.
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http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1147679.html
Published: Jul 20, 2008 12:30 AM Modified: Jul 20, 2008 01:41 AM
Under the Dome:
DHHS, N&O at odds over e-mail request
Gov. Mike Easley's administration is still having trouble turning over copies of the e-mail messages of its officials.
On June 27, The News & Observer filed a request with the state Department of Health and Human Services for copies of e-mail since May 1 from six officials pertaining to the opening of Central Regional Hospital, the state's new mental hospital in Butner.
It took 11 days, until July 8, for the department's public information staff to forward the request to the six employees. DHHS public information staffer Mark Van Sciver instructed the six officials to gather the relevant e-mail and respond by July 23.
The first patients are scheduled to move into the hospital on or about July 21.
Tom Lawrence, the agency's director of public affairs, said his office was not trying to delay the request until after the opening and said those who had the e-mails were busy.
"We have a hospital to open," Lawrence said July 9.
Steve Riley, a senior editor at The N&O, faxed a letter protesting the delay to DHHS Secretary Dempsey Benton later that day.
"It is not reasonable that it should take so long to respond to a request for electronic records that could be copied to a file in a matter of minutes," Riley wrote.
Benton responded by telephone that afternoon, assuring Riley that he would direct his public affairs staff to speed things up.
More than a week has passed, and the e-mail has yet to be provided.
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