LOS ANGELES, Calif.–Five Southland hospitals are among 14 in California that have been fined for imperiling patient safety through such missteps as leaving items inside people who have undergone surgery, the California Department of Public Health announced today.
The five include Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital in Valencia, L.A. County-USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights, Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton and Torrance Memorial Medical Center in Torrance.
The Department of Public Health said in a statement that the 14 hospitals it penalized were fined a total of $850,000 “after it was determined the facilities’ noncompliance with licensing requirements caused, or was likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients.”
Among the five Southland hospitals, the one slapped with the highest fine–$100,000–was Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. Because it failed to follow its own procedures and policies, an object was left inside a patient, requiring a second surgery, according to the Department of Public Health. It was Mission’s fourth administrative penalty.
Torrance Memorial Medical Center, with transgressions similar to Mission Hospital’s, was fined $75,000 in its second administrative penalty, the department said.
In Fullerton, St. Jude Medical Center “failed to implement policies and procedures for the safe administration of medication” and was fined $75,000 in its third administrative penalty, according to the department’s statement.
Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital also “failed to implement policies and procedures for the safe administration of medication” and, in its first penalty, was fined $50,000, the department said.
Like Mission Hospital and Torrance Memorial, County-USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights” did not follow its surgical policies and procedures. This resulted in a patient having to undergo a second surgery to remove a retained foreign object,” according to the department. The hospital was fined $25,000 in its fifth administrative penalty.
Hospitals fined by the Department of Public Health are required to provide plans on how they will prevent recurrences of mistakes.
