Tension grows between DCS, children's hospitals

Good morning! Welcome to your Daily Briefing. I'm politics and investigations editor Duane Gang.

The Tennessee Department of Children's Services is facing growing scrutiny − by lawmakers, the media and others − over how it treats the kids in its care.

The department is facing a staff shortage, struggles with its Wilder Youth Development Center in West Tennessee and difficulty finding temporary placement for kids it takes into custody. DCS has resorted to placing children in department offices until they can find permanent homes and kept kids in hospitals for weeks and even months longer than necessary.

Now, there's emerging tension between children's hospitals in the state and DCS, investigative reporter Josh Keefe reports.

One top-level DCS official wrote to new DCS Commissioner Margie Quin in September about hearing from a top Vanderbilt University children's hospital doctor, who vented his frustration about DCS housing kids at the hospital, according to emails The Tennessean obtained through a public records request.

The DCS official even wrote how a lack of communication sometimes caused frustration among other hospitals in the state, which she admitted was sometimes warranted, Josh reports. 

“When the communication falls off, hospitals feel like we’re using them as holding areas and not looking too hard for placements. (In some cases, that was/is actually true, though.),” the DCS official wrote.

You can read more here about the latest challenge facing DCS.

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