A Question For NCDHHS's Lanier Cansler: Why So Serious Now?

An article in the N&O today features new NCDHHS Secretary, Lanier Cansler, tooting the agency's horn.

They're "serious" about "zero tolerance" for abuse & neglect at mental health hospitals.

And special prosecutors for the NC Attorney General's office are all over it.

"We've created a zero-tolerance environment for abuse and neglect, as well as zero tolerance for failing to report abuse and neglect . . . Obviously, we wish none of it occurred. But I also want to say that we have a lot of good employees who are feeling beaten up right now because of the bad things that are going on."

It's the "zero tolerance for failing to report abuse and neglect" that really stuck in my craw.

Hi. Mr. Cansler. "Beat-up" ex-public servant here. I did not work in a mental hospital - just a hospital run by mill-town mental cases . . . power-mongers and control-freaks who put style before substance . . . and greed before everything.

But still, it was a hospital that got lots of state & federal support.

Mr. Cansler, I reported medical badness ELEVEN YEARS AGO. The child & parents involved were no less victims of abuse & neglect than the mental patients (you call them "clients') you wring your hands over now.

And stomped like a bug for standing up to the suits and reporting that neglect/abuse, I was no less a victim.

I was medical road-kill.

Let's review, Mr. Cansler. Neither your agency nor its counterpart at USDHHS lifted a damned finger to do anything about what happened . . . until I got Congressman Howard Coble on your case . . . and by then it was way too little way too late.

SIX years ago (in 2003 - before statutes of limitations on civil fraud ran out), I presented evidence to the Randolph County DA - and the NC Attorney General - that "non-profit" Randolph Hospital senior executives, Bob Morrison and Steven Elbin, lied repeatedly under Oath . . . in order to save themselves some money in the suit-countersuit that I was forced to pursue all by my lonesome . . . because neither the state nor federal governments could be bothered to defend one of their own . . . because their own contracts and the law were just empty words on fancy paper.

It's been a state-sanctioned cover-up from day one. NC & USDHHS, the Medical Board, the State Bar . . . you all had TONS of tolerance for bad behavior. You encouraged it. You REWARDED it.

Because the local DA and the state of North Carolina took no action in 2003 (the DA, Garland Yates, would not even talk to me), the only recourse I have now is criminal court. Perjury does not have a statute of limitations, and the law allows for victims of a crime to be compensated. The damage is on-going, and I am keeping tabs.

And I am so not going away. Oo-rah.

Incredibly, the North Carolina Attorney General (lawyer to NCDHHS) says he has no jurisdiction over the illegal behavior of "non-profits"!?! And that is not just a lie, it is a damned lie. Non-profits answer to the N.C. Secretary of State. They routinely get funding and grants. I am licensed by the state. I got loan-repayment from the state . . . taxpayer dollars. This hospital committed fraud . . . not just upon me, but an entire community.

You cannot tell me that there isn't any way or mechanism to make them tow the legal/ethical line. It does not fly!

But Roy Cooper's special prosecutors have stuck up their noses . . . even as they torment good cops in Greensboro for non-existent crimes. It's maddening.

My evidence is in "Black & White" and doesn't need multiple installments (sorry Jerry). But my situation doesn't rate a decent investigation . . . much less a prosecution (psst, Mr. Coman, it's a case you could very easily win)?!?

Meanwhile, the high & mighty's on the North Carolina Medical Board have not lifted a finger in all of this time to to tweak the Medical Practice Act in a fashion that might protect medical whistle-blowers . . and OBTW/by extension, the patients they advocate for (no biggie). It's a damned dog and pony show. Thomas Mansfield & company have tuned "my problem" out . . . not seeming to understand that maybe I would not have had any "problems" if they protected the duties they require.

Now I'm drafting a lawsuit and consulting attorneys about suing the government and regulatory bodies that have let me swing in the wind for so long . . . while Bob & Steve, with their friends in high places . . . bold-faced liars who should have been fired FOR CAUSE by their inbred/rubber-stamp Board-of-Directors when this evidence was first brought to light . . . still collect their very fat, so-not-confidential pay-checks.

The state of North Carolina is "serious" about medical oversight?

Why so serious now? You have not given a rat's tail before. That's why "disproportionate share" happened. That's why mental health care in this state went straight to hell.

So forgive me, Lanier, as I spit & sputter out, PUHLEASE!

You and "law & order" Roy and Bev and all the rest are pathetic poseurs. Even the "zero tolerance" act now is about covering the big tails . . . and you'll probably take that overboard persecuting a demoralized staff that is already way over-burdened and under-appreciated for their work on the front lines of what can be a hellish environment.

And that's why I am still here in the blogosphere, as one of those beaten-up, very disgruntled ex-hospital employees, ragging your tail. If the state does not shortly get its head out of its butt, I will shortly see your agency in court.

I'll show you serious.