RALEIGH - A patient with a history of violence severely beat a nurse at a state mental hospital in Butner early Monday, breaking bones in her face and pulling out clumps of hair.

John Umstead Hospital was cited by federal regulators in December for the failure of administrators to control violent incidents involving staff and patients. The assault comes amid concern that staffing cuts at the state's four mental hospitals are making the facilities increasingly dangerous.

An investigative report says patient Scott Schoeller, 33, walked into the nurse's office on Ward 352 at Umstead about 2 a.m. and started beating nurse Lisa McClure in the head and face.

Officers with Butner Public Safety are seeking a felony charge against Schoeller of assault inflicting serious bodily injury, according to the investigative report.

McClure, 38, was taken to the emergency room at Durham Regional Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Her husband said Tuesday it will take time for her to recover.

"Her face is still so swollen the doctors can't fully assess the extent of her injuries," said Bobby McClure, who is also a nurse.

McClure said that his wife had repeatedly expressed concern about staffing levels on the night shift at Umstead and that she might be attacked by a patient. Schoeller had recently used a chair to break out windows in the hospital.

Jim Osberg, the director of the state mental hospital system, said the 15-patient, all-male ward where the beating occurred was fully staffed with three nurses and a health-care technician.

The four staff members on duty were all female, however.

Hospital managers don't always have the numbers of staff available to assign male workers with male patients, Osberg said.

Lisa McClure is 5-foot-2. Her attacker is 6-foot-1, according to the police report.

'Risky job'

"We certainly try to have male staff on with male patients, but we have to staff with the individuals we have available at the time, and sometimes we only have females available to work," Osberg said. "Our population of patients is challenging, and, at times, it is an inherently risky job we ask folks to take on. With any number of staff, you cannot necessarily predict when patients might become violent."

Court records indicate Schoeller has faced criminal charges for violent acts at least six times in the past seven years, including convictions for assault on a public official in 2002 and for assault on a female in 2006. He served five months in state prison for the 2002 assault, according to records.

In December, investigators recommended withholding federal money from Umstead after faulting the hospital's administration for "failing to prevent patient abuse and failing to monitor and modify a care plan to prevent repeated incidents of patient-to-patient and patient-to-staff abuse." A subsequent report detailed how three hospital workers beat a mentally ill woman who was strapped to a bed.

Workers in state hospitals say they are the ones under threat, however. At a rally May 20, several employees said failed reforms of the mental health system were leading to increasingly violent and desperate patients.

"These patients have been getting more violent in the last five years because they aren't getting the treatment they need," said Bernice Lunsford, an Umstead nurse with 22 years on the job.

A panel appointed by Gov. Mike Easley's administration to review North Carolina's mental health system filed a scathing report May 15, saying deep cuts to hospital beds and treatment in the past seven years are endangering lives.

The group found patient-to-staff ratios at North Carolina's mental hospitals lag far behind similar facilities in Tennessee and Texas and recommended adding at least 717 full-time employees statewide to help ensure safety.

"We firmly believe that current levels of staffing are inherently dangerous and ... additional staff are essential!" the group reported.

$7 million boost

The budget proposed by Easley for next year includes $7 million to add 107 positions at the state hospitals.

At Broughton Hospital in Morganton, which lost its accreditation last year after a series of patient deaths, the head of the medical and psychology staff resigned May 30.

In an e-mail message to to his co-workers, psychiatrist Shujaat Nathani said the hospital was becoming too dangerous. He said colleagues at other state hospitals had shared similar concerns.

"I am leaving because of safety/health concerns with the staff shortages that are chronic," Nathani wrote as he bid farewell. "On Ward 18 we have been running minimal staff most days, with a ward full of volatile young men with high testosterone levels. It is getting to the point where someone is liable to get seriously hurt or get killed. It puts all the staff at risk."

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