Parkland Hospital Submits Plan to Remedy Deficiencies, Protect Funding

According to media reports, this year Parkland expects to receive about 50% of its patient revenue – or $226 million – from Medicare and Medicaid payments. It also receives about $191 million in Medicaid disproportionate share subsidies. The total from both programs – $417 million – represents about 35 percent of Parkland’s total annual budget.

With the letter, CMS and Texas officials released to the hospital more than 600 combined pages detailing their findings. The reports, annotated by Parkland to indicate corrective measures, were made available to the public Friday evening.

The CMS report may be viewed here. 
The Texas report may be viewed here.

Among the deficiencies:

• Failure to dispose of soiled gloves and gowns and wash hands after treating patients
• Failure to properly dispose of infectious waste, including used syringes, body fluids, used respiratory equipment and used suction equipment
• Lack of stabilizing treatment in emergency department before a transfer to another acute care facility
• Lack of ER screening by a qualified medical professional
• Failure to identify or assess emergency severity index
• Medical residents unsupervised during clinical care by either an attending physician or faculty member
• ER patients in a high level of pain provided with maps and directed to go to other parts of the hospital for treatment without benefit of any other assistance
• Failure to provide 24-hour nursing services
• Failure to change bed linens between emergency room patients
• Failure to dispose of expired medications