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Immediate Jeopardy Deficiencies Found at Second Dallas Hospital

 |  By Margaret@example.com  
   August 31, 2011

For the second time this month a Dallas hospital faces termination of its Medicare contract 'over deficiencies that potentially endanger patients.

Laura Irvine, the administrator at Methodist Dallas Medical Center, was notified of the 'the "immediate jeopardy" deficiencies in an August 26th letter from the Dallas office of the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.


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The 515-bed hospital is part of the five-hospital Methodist Health System. It stands to lose up to $208 million in federal funding.

Earlier this month officials at Parkland Memorial Hospital received a similar letter. The hospital submitted the required corrective action plan which was accepted by state and federal officials. A second review  was underway on Tuesday.

On Tuesday night, Parkland's board announced that CEO Ron Anderson, MD, will "transition" to a different position when his contract ends in December.

The Methodist Dallas letter was sent after a review of a survey report written by the Texas Department of State Health Services. The report identified 10 broad areas of deficiencies, including medical screening, emergency services, and medical records. The specific violations will not be made available to the public until Methodist Dallas completes and releases it corrective action plan, which must be delivered to CMS by September 6.

David Wright, acting deputy regional administrator for CMS, said in an e-mail exchange that CMS is "constrained in what we can release at this point." He did acknowledge that the immediate jeopardy deficiency for Methodist Dallas is related to Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act or EMTALA violations.

In a response posted on the Methodist Health System's website, officials at Methodist Dallas Medical Center said "a special task force of Methodist Dallas clinicians and administrators is in the process of a thorough review of all the survey recommendations and will address each one in detail in our CMS response plan. We are committed to correct the findings identified by CMS -- and to do so as quickly and thoroughly as possible."

The statement attributes the deficiencies to "increased volume and space limitations in our emergency department. The ED has outgrown its current space, and we realize there are places that are not as private as we would like." On August 23 the medical center announced a $108 million expansion to its emergency, critical care, and surgery departments.


ROUNDS: Women’s Health Strategies
for Service Line Growth and Quality

When: September 15, 2011
Register today
for this live webcast from Bon Secours Richmond Health System


According to the statement, MDMC has already addressed the majority of the issues cited in the survey, including policy and procedure updates related to the emergency department.

CMS has advised the medical center that its action plan will be reviewed and that the facility will be subject to a second survey before September 19.

See Also:

Commentary: Parkland Hospital Audits Raise Troubling Questions

 

Parkland Hospital Submits Plan to Remedy Deficiencies, Protect Funding

Q&A: Parkland's Medicare crisis through the eyes of its clinical engineer chief

Margaret Dick Tocknell is a reporter/editor with HealthLeaders Media.
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