Jewish Hospital: "Feel Better," or not...Hospital accused of violating Medicare regulations designed to protect patients
It appears Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare has just narrowly avoided another cut off of Medicare payments for treatment of patients for the third time in less than 18 months, according to reports by the Courier-Journal. The threatened cut offs are not due to an accounting mix-up, but are due to Jewish’s alleged violations of state and federal regulations designed to safeguard the health and welfare of its patients. The alleged violations leading to the most recent cut off included failure to follow procedures designed to protect elderly patients from falls while using walkers at its downtown facility; violations of fire and safety codes at Our Lady of Peace psychiatric hospital, which is run by Jewish; and failure to properly notify patients about the status of investigations by the company into complaints made by patients.
The prior violations over the past 18 months included incidents at the Our Lady of Peace facility where a 17 year old female patient was allowed to smash her head against the floor 120 times and at the same facility where complaints and allegations of abuse were not promptly responded to by the facility.
The Courier-Journal quoted Gwenda Bond, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, the agency tasked with overseeing hospital compliance with these regulations, as saying that the number of cut offs that Jewish has been threatened with over the past two years “is more than we would see with most hospitals” but is not unprecedented. Jewish has responded by saying that it has patients that are different from patients at other hospitals, “a fragile patient population” as Dr. Lynn Simon, chief medical officer for Jewish told the Courier-Journal.
However, with the frequency of reports we have to wonder: what makes Jewish’s patients so much different than other hospitals that they consistently seem unable to follow the rules? Certainly other hospitals and facilities have been cited over the past several years, but it appears than none have been threatened with cut offs as frequently as Jewish Hospital. Certainly the most recent case didn’t appear to involve anything out of the ordinary in terms of a patient that could have been seen at any of the area’s major hospitals. The patient was reportedly admitted September 7, 2009 for a urinary tract infection and pneumonia and several other medical complications. After an unsuccessful attempt at IV antibiotics, a doctor recommended a PICC line placement. However, due to short staffing, the procedure was never done. That decision was made, not by a doctor, but by the hospital’s COO. The failure lead to one of the patient’s lungs collapsing, a potentially life-threatening condition. Due to patient confidentiality concerns no more information is available on the status of the patient at this time. According to the report done by the state investigators, Jewish was fully aware ahead of time of the staffing shortfall.
Bahe Cook Cantley & Jones PLC attorney Brian D. Cook has handled similar cases against Jewish Hospital involving injury to patients and alleged failures on the part of the hospital to abide by the same types of laws and regulations that are at issue in the recent threatened cut offs, namely the failure to timely and adequately respond to patient's complaints of abuse at a facility. Like any case against a hospital or other healthcare provider, these cases can be very complex and difficult. If you have questions about the regulations and laws at issue in the report or would like more information, contact Mr. Cook or any of the attorneys at Bahe Cook Cantley & Jones PLC.
