North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1971 |
| Jurisdiction | State of North Carolina |
| Employees | 19,000 |
| Agency executive |
|
| Website | Official State DHHS Website |
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is a large government agency in the U.S. state of North Carolina, somewhat analogous to the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The DHHS has more than 19,000 employees. The DHHS has its origins in the former North Carolina Department of Human Resources (DHR). It is headed by a Secretary, who is appointed by the governor.
Among its divisions are:
The following is a complete list of DHHS secretaries:
The DHHS has its origins in the former North Carolina Department of Human Resources (DHR). The DHR was created in 1971 as an umbrella to consolidate what had been more than 300 free-standing state agencies. The first Secretary of Human Resources, Dr. Lenox Baker, was appointed by Governor Robert W. Scott.
The Division of Public Health, an original part of the department, was taken out of the DHR in 1989. Most of its functions were transferred back to the DHR in 1997, when the agency was renamed the Department of Health and Human Services.
In April 2004, DHHS awarded Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) a contract to replace the existing Medicaid Management Information System operated by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services. ACS was to complete the design by the summer of 2006, though the contract was terminated in July 2006 for delays. ACS filed a lawsuit against the state for wrongful work termination, and the civil court case was settled in January 2007, with ACS agreeing to install an additional software suite to help Medicaid generate savings. Two years later DHHS again attempted to replace their Medicaid computer system, awarding a $265 million contract to Computer Science Services in January 2009, with an August 2011 deadline for putting the system live.
An incident at DHHS psychiatric hospitals in 2009 attracted media attention, when a patient at Cherry Hospital was left in a chair for 24 hours before dying. Lanier Cansler was appointed as Secretary of DHHS shortly afterwards. One of his first actions was to create a zero-tolerance policy for patient abuse. A year later, former house co-speaker Richard T. Morgan filed an ethics complaint against Cansler, alleging a conflict of interest when Cansler awarded a no-bid HHS contract to one of his former lobbying clients, Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence. The claim would be dismissed early the next year.
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