Center where patient died has 30 days to make changes

Raleigh, N.C. — Representatives on behalf of the U.S. Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services have completed their investigation at a Goldsboro residential center where a patient died earlier this month.

It has 30 days to make corrections, or it could face the loss of its funding for the federal insurance programs, Brad Deen, a spokesman with the Department of Health and Human Services, said Tuesday afternoon.

The patient died last Wednesday at the O'Berry Neuro-Medical Center, a living facility for people with chronic medical conditions and developmental disabilities.

Deen said that the federal survey team required O'Berry's administrators to develop a plan of correction that calls for closer supervision and increased monitoring of the residents.

The surveyors will recommend that CMS issue a finding of a condition-level deficiency, which means surveyors did not find conditions that place residents in immediate jeopardy of harm.

DHHS has said that abuse is not suspected, but confidentiality laws prevent the department from releasing other detail about the death.

Two health care technicians and two supervisory-level employees have been removed from patient care and been placed on leave pending the outcome of a state investigation.