Monitors say Parkland Hospital lags behind in meeting patient-safety mandates

In the month of June alone, safety monitors observed 756 instances in which Parkland Memorial Hospital staff violated infection-control standards by failing to use proper hand hygiene. The monitors also found that "critical vacancies" remain in the troubled psychiatric department, including permanent physicians to oversee mental-health patients seeking emergency care. And they reported that the hospital still lags behind schedule in efforts to ensure safe supervision of resident doctor trainees. Those are among several troubling signs in a June report card for the Dallas public hospital as it enters a critical stretch of its regulatory probation.