Employees travel widely on hospital gifts

Workers at the psychiatric hospital take fancy trips with money from drug makers, medical schools

RALEIGH -- Employees at a troubled state mental hospital in Goldsboro used money from drug companies and foreign medical schools to visit destinations such as Hawaii and Hungary.

In less than four years, administrators at Cherry Hospital approved more than $139,851 in spending for overnight travel to more than 100 medical conferences and professional events, including at least 48 trips to other states or overseas.

Using both state revenue and money from a nonprofit foundation created to benefit the hospital's patients, employees have spent an additional $215,650 since 2005 on fundraisers, catered meals for hospital staff, and an annual retreat at a Wrightsville Beach resort.

The director of Cherry Hospital, Jack St. Clair, said the spending through the hospital's Continuing Medical Education program is essential to attract and retain qualified professionals who could earn higher salaries in private jobs.

"We're in a highly competitive, highly demanding market in the world of medicine as it relates to the psychiatric world," St. Clair said.

Though at least five other state-run mental institutions in North Carolina have similar accounts used for medical education and recruitment efforts, Cherry raised and spent at least eight times the other institutions' combined totals on employee travel.

Dempsey Benton, secretary for the state Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that oversight of such spending has been inadequate.

"Steps have been taken to better monitor and utilize these monies to include patient care and needs," Benton said in a written statement.

Federal officials withdrew Medicare and Medicaid funding from Cherry Hospital last month after the death of a patient who choked on his medication, hit his head and was then left sitting in a chair for 22 hours. It was the latest in a string of instances of patient neglect and abuse at the hospital.

The money for the employees' excursions came from two checking accounts controlled by managers who are also the hospital's most frequent travelers: Dr. Kimberly Johnson, the clinical director; and Judy Howell, an administrative assistant who coordinates Cherry's medical education program.

Johnson and Howell each attended a dozen conferences in the last three years, visiting such cities as New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, San Diego, San Francisco and Toronto.

The pair often traveled together and stayed in upscale accommodations. An example is a two-bedroom, two-bath condo they rented at the Scottsdale Links Resort, a luxury spa next to a renowned golf course in Arizona. They were accompanied by Phyllis Neal, Johnson's administrative secretary and then reigning champ of Cherry's annual golf tournament.

The four-day trip to an annual meeting of the Alliance for Continuing Medical Education cost at least $4,364.

Johnson, Howell and Neal were not available for comment, according to a departmental spokesman. All requests for interviews were referred to St. Clair, who said conferences in the medical field are usually at expensive locations.

"You're not going to go to a national conference involving the clinical world of the disciplines that we deal with and have your conference at Tom Bodett's Motel 6," he said. "That's one of the attractions they use to bring people from all over the country, and sometimes internationally. There are some perks that come with that."

Getting trips approved

St. Clair said he had not taken any trips out of state, but as Johnson's direct supervisor he signed off on most of her expenses. Johnson, the hospital's top medical doctor, approved expense requests for Howell and others.