Raleigh children's hospital staffer says facility set up for failure after numerous patients escape

Raleigh police said five young people who escaped Raleigh's Holly Hill Children's Hospital earlier in the week have all been located.

This is after three patients ran away Sunday night and were found in Cary.

Since news circulated about the escapes, WRAL has heard from dozens of people who have ties to the hospital. WRAL Investigates has revealed evidence of multiple escapes dating back to 2021.

One employee believes two factors are to blame. The employee we spoke with has been working at Holly Hill Children's Hospital since 2022.

Their identity has been hidden to protect their employment. They said short staffing and poor security are to blame for the growing number of children who've escaped.

This employee believes the staff is set up for failure.

"Staffing is most definitely the issue," they said. "If we have more staff or more help, I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be that hard to keep the kids in their right environments."

They say the only thing stopping a patient from leaving is a badge carried by each employee.

And once it's stolen, understaffing makes it hard to stop a patient from leaving.

In a statement, Holly Hill Hospital said the facility is staffed appropriately to care for the patients.

"If it wasn't an issue, why are these children escaping? How are they getting out so frequently?" they said.

After Wednesday's report, numerous parents reached out to WRAL News with their concerns about this facility.

Michelle Futrall said her daughter was attacked by another teenager within days of her being admitted here with no word from staff.

"They didn't forewarn us going into visitation that our daughter was injured," said Futrall. "We learned by walking in and seeing knots on her face, bruises, and spots where hair was pulled out... I don't think that they are operating in a safe way, and it is supposed to be a place that is supposed to protect children and tell them. And it is actually harming them more because they aren't following proper procedures that the system is designed for."

Futrall says she'd like to see a system in which she was able to choose where her daughter received care. Otherwise, her daughter wouldn't have ended up here.

Thursday night, parents were thankful their children had been found, but are still looking for accountability.

Previous escapes from Holly Hill

This isn’t the first time patients have escaped from Holly Hill Hospital.

Documents obtained by North Carolina Health News revealed other instances of breached protocols that led to escapes.

That publication found that in June 2021, health regulators from the state North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services put Holly Hill under “immediate jeopardy” after finding several deficiencies, including conditions that allowed two patients to escape the facility by jumping over a fence.

Immediate jeopardy is the most severe citation a hospital can receive, indicating serious harm or death has or is likely to occur to one or more patients, requiring immediate action. At that time, the hospital had to make changes to get back in compliance or risk losing the ability to bill federally funded programs like Medicaid. Records indicate they did make the necessary changes in time.

Records obtained by North Carolina Health News about the 2021 incident found that the two patients were pretending to play basketball and escaped by climbing a chair placed by the fence of the courtyard during outdoor recreation time. The patients were both considered “at risk” for elopement, but their patient records failed to reflect that, regulators found. According to state records, the two patients escaped while the one staff member in charge was sitting at a picnic table looking at their phone. Hospital policy requires two staff members to be with patients during outdoor time, with one stationed near the exterior fence.

North Carolina Health News also learned that Holly Hill’s parent company, Universal Health Services, also owns Brynn Marr Hospital in Jacksonville, which was also placed under immediate jeopardy last year after a psychiatric patient escaped its facility. That incident also occurred during a time when there was an improper ratio of staff to patients.

Universal Health Services operates 400 facilities across the United States and the United Kingdom, including 333 behavioral health inpatient facilities like Holly Hill.

WRAL News has reached out to Holly Hill Hospital and Universal Health Services to to request an interview. We have not yet heard back.