Benton: Cherry deserves money

The state's troubled mental hospital in Goldsboro deserves to keep its federal money, a top state official has told regulators.

Dempsey Benton, state secretary of health and human services, told federal officials in a letter last week that Cherry Hospital moved quickly to correct problems after one of its patients died after being largely ignored by nursing staff, and a doctor struck a teenage patient.

Benton wrote to a regional federal administrator in Atlanta on Sept. 3 after inspectors recommended that Cherry lose its federal insurance payments because it is dangerous for patients.

The hospital gets an average of $798,000 per month in federal money.

As the hospital made plans to correct its first round of problems, more problems emerged. For example, two staff members were accused of beating a patient at the same time the hospital was requiring classes on proper care of patients as part of its correction plan.

The problems inspectors found when they came back to the hospital in late August should be handled in a new correction plan, Benton wrote, and should not cause the hospital to lose its federal money.

"We do not dispute the serious nature of the incidents that have occurred at Cherry Hospital," Benton wrote, "but we strongly believe that the hospital is moving forward rapidly to implement corrective actions. ..."