State officials told legislators Thursday that they are reviewing mental hospital procedures in the wake of an Atlanta Journal-Constitution investigation on deaths, abuse and neglect in those facilities.

The response was disclosed as a House Appropriations subcommittee questioned the commissioner of Department of Human Resources, which runs the seven state hospitals, about the newspaper's articles at a legislative hearing on the agency's budget for fiscal 2007.

The Journal-Constitution identified at least 115 patients who died under suspicious circumstances and found more than 190 substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse of patients during the past five years.

B.J. Walker, the agency commissioner, said the newspaper's conclusions on patient deaths were inaccurate. "I would not agree we've had 115 suspicious deaths," she told the panel. But she said the newspaper articles provided "an opportunity" for the agency to examine its processes, she said.

The agency said it has brought in Medical College of Georgia experts to scrutinize hospitals' medical and psychiatric care.

Walker said the newspaper failed to point out that the number of hospital deaths has been dropping.

She told the panel that most of the death and abuse cases highlighted by the newspaper occurred in 2002 and 2003. She became DHR commissioner in 2004.

She did acknowledge hospital failure in the 2006 death of Sarah Crider, 14, which was detail by the newspaper. A doctor who treated her has been terminated, Walker said.

The Journal-Constitution's investigation shows a decline in overall deaths in the seven hospitals, from 83 in 2002 to 48 in 2006. The newspaper's findings for suspicious deaths show 15 in 2002; 29 in 2003; 29 in 2004; 22 in 2005; and 20 in 2006.

Ellyn Jeager of Mental Health America of Georgia, a consumer group, criticized state officials' response to lawmakers after the Thursday hearing.

"I'm waiting for the state to acknowledge that people died unnecessarily. It doesn't matter how many. They must accept responsibility for the deaths."

The newspaper used several sources to compile its list: a database of state vital records, death certificates, autopsy reports, claims filed against the state, and DHR documents. Reporters also consulted psychiatrists and patient advocates, who agreed the deaths were suspicious.

The suspicious deaths included 36 people who died from choking on food, vomit or foreign objects, or by aspirating those substances into their lungs. A similar number died for lack of emergency treatment or from questionable medical care. Twelve committed suicide.

Besides people with mental illness, including forensic patients sent by the courts, the hospitals also serve the developmentally disabled.

After the hearing, chairman of the subcommittee, Rep. Mark Butler (R-Carrollton), said, "We need to take more steps. We're looking at a few items ... some additional oversight." It would probably come in legislation, Butler said. Earlier this week, he and other lawmakers said they intend to examine conditions in the hospitals.

On Tuesday, advocates for the mentally ill cited the newspaper series in calling for Georgia lawmakers to create a statutory commission to recommend reforms to the system. The advocates also sought funding for an independent state ombudsman to investigate reports of abuse and neglect in state hospitals.

One group, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, has called for a U.S. Department of Justice investigation of Georgia's mental hospitals, citing the newspaper's series. A Justice spokeswoman said the request is being reviewed.

DHR officials told the legislative panel Thursday that they have scrutinized how they review hospital problems, including how they report incidents to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. GBI officials have said the hospitals do not systematically notify them of deaths or of other serious incidents. Last year, it took six days before Georgia Regional Hospital/Atlanta notified either the Department of Human Resources headquarters or the GBI that an employee allegedly raped a patient.

Agency officials, through a budget proposal, also are looking at raising the pay of nurses in hospitals, as well as that of other workers who care for patients.

Gwen Skinner, who heads the mental health division of the Department of Human Resources, said the state has been forced to reduce medications for patients, along with therapy services within the hospitals, because of a deficit in funding. The agency is requesting an additional $9 million for the current fiscal year. But Walker said the additional funding requested was not directly linked to care problems cited by the newspaper.

Walker said the average occupancy rate in adult mental health units was 109 percent. She has said the state has created additional community services to prevent hospitalization.

But Butler and other lawmakers sharply questioned Human Resources officials on the availability of community services, citing a reduction in facility treatment beds for adolescents with substance abuse problems.