Problem No Longer Can Be Ignored

It's time for big changes at the Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital in Huntington. That's according to the chairman of the House of Delegates Health and Human Resources Committee. Wayne County Delegate Don Perdue says he met with administrators at the psychiatric hospital three weeks ago for more than two hours hashing out the challenges the facility faces. He says when the state Office of the Ombudsman for Behavioral Health cited the hospital for multiple problems. Perdue says it didn't come as a shock. "I can't tell you I was surprised by what they were seeing. I was surprised by the depth of the problem,” he said. The facility was meant to house 90 beds and it currently has 117 patients, many of them sleeping on cots. "First of all they're overcrowded by a dramatic degree and it's been that way for a long time,” Perdue... [read full story]