Once again, this state's mental-health system has terribly failed. A mental patient at Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro died some time after workers had left him in a chair for 22 hours without feeding or helping him use the bathroom -- even as they watched TV, played cards and chatted on a cell phone just a few feet away. That psychiatric hospital, and the state mental health-care system in general, must improve its care.
When health-care technicians couldn't get Steven H. Sabock, 50, to walk back to his bed after all that time in a day room in April, they stood him up, pushed a chair under and slid him back to his room, the Raleigh News & Observer reported this week. Sabock, formerly of Roanoke Rapids, was later found dead in his bed. "The hospital's security video recorded Sabock's care from April 28, when he choked on his medicine while a nurse stood by without helping him, and through his day without food until his death from a heart problem," the Raleigh newspaper reported.
An investigator's report released Monday said that workers were supposed to be closely watching Sabock's condition and may have forged documents that said they had, according to The Associated Press.
Federal officials have threatened to cut off the hospital's financing, the AP reported, because of both Sabock's death and a report that a doctor hit a teenage patient after the teenager bit the doctor. The state sent a team Tuesday to help the hospital write new procedures to make sure patients get proper care, according to the AP.
The state should consider what disciplinary action should be taken. The state may also reassign nurses to provide more patient supervision.
All of these measures are sure needed. It's too late for Sabock, but the best possible care for other patients must be ensured.
When this state embarked on its grand overhaul of the state's mental health-care system several years ago, the idea was to get more patients out of the state's four psychiatric hospitals and into private care in their communities. The community-care system wasn't ready for the overhaul. That care has left much to be desired.
Some patients have ended up back in the state hospitals. And once again, it's clear that the care that the state psychiatric-hospital system provides leaves much to be desired.
The state must file a report with the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services detailing what changes officials are making at Cherry Hospital. If the center rejects the report, federal money will soon end.
Let's hope the report is a complete one that details a firm plan for providing better care. Unless widespread, unsolvable problems are found at Cherry Hospital, the state needs it. But the state needs it operating at its best for its very vulnerable patients. Cherry Hospital obviously has a long way to go to achieve that goal -- just as does the rest of the state's mental health-care system.
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