An investigation into a man’s suicide by hanging at Central Regional Hospital in Butner, N.C., resulted in the removal of all full-length bathroom doors in patients’ private rooms, according to an article on the Charlotte Observer website.
The state Department of Heath and Human Services officials decided patient privacy could be maintained without the doors. The agency is considering various options for replacing them.
The investigation also found that staff members were not checking patients as they should and a record of patient monitoring had been falsified.
The state recently finished construction of a new hospital with breakaway bathroom doors. DHHS is considering putting sensors on doors to semi-private bathrooms in another facility under construction. Bathrooms in private patient rooms there will have no doors.
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