In California, the department of Public Health is fining six Southern California Hospitals $25,000 each for serious violations. Some of these violations were serious enough to result in patient injuries and deaths.
In Orange County, California, Children's Hospital is accused of failing to make sure that the appropriate drainage procedure was conducted on a child following a neurological procedure last year. Because of the oversight, state health officials say that the patient sustained a serious traumatic brain injury. Meantime, the hospital has said that it has adjusted hospital protocols and stepped up staff training to decrease the chances that this type of catastrophic medical mistake will happen again.
In Newport Beach, medical staffers at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian reportedly failed to continuously monitor a patient. Because of this, no one noticed that the patient's cardiac activity strip had flat-lined suddenly after a cardiac monitor was disconnected for over half an hour. Also, the technician never heard the machine alarm go off because the sound was set at a lower level. A nurse discovered the patient, who by this time was unresponsive and sweating heavily. The patient's time of death was called 20 minutes later. The Newport Beach hospital says that the hospital has hired more staff members so that the responsibility of checking too many monitors doesn't fall on just one person.
In Riverside County, Southwest Healthcare Systems received its third administrative fine since 2007. The Murietta, California hospital is accused of using general surgery beds as intensive care beds and not having enough people on staff.
In Laguna Beach, South Coast Medical Center was ordered to pay a fine for failing to follow proper surgical procedures. Medical staffers had to perform a second surgery after items were left in a patient during an initial surgery. In Los Angeles County, USC Medical Center and Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton in San Bernardino County must pay fines for similar surgical mistakes.
The California Department of Public Health also issued fines to hospitals in Solano County, Butte County, Calaveras County, and Lake County.
Our Anaheim, California medical malpractice lawyers do not dispute that it is positive progress for hospitals to remedy procedural errors that have caused medical mistakes in the past. Fixing the problem now, however, will not bring back someone who died or reverse the illness or take away the injury sustained due to medical negligence.
State fines six California hospitals for serious violations, Los Angeles Times, September 3, 2009
California Department of Public Health Issues Administrative Penalties to 12 Hospitals, Cdph, September 3, 2009
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