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Third Immediate Jeopardy for Cape Fear Valley Medical Center

 |  By Margaret@example.com  
   January 13, 2012

Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville, NC has received notification from the Atlanta office of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that it faces its third immediate jeopardy status in as many months.

The 485-bed medical center, which is a safety-net hospital, must submit a corrective action plan to CMS by Jan. 19. Another survey will be performed to confirm that the CAP has been implemented and is successful.

Although the exact nature of the new problem is unknown, CMS applies the immediate jeopardy designation to situations that represent an immediate and serious threat to patient health and safety. In an e-mail statement, Vince Benbenek, a CFVMC spokesperson, referenced a telemetry problem. "The deficiency found in the Dec 22 survey relates to our policy for telemetry. Our practice was consistent with national guidelines. Our policy however, was not in line with our practice. Therefore we have updated our policy to match our practice."

While Benbenek confirmed that the medical center has been under immediate jeopardy status three separate times, he declined to comment on CMS's findings or what precipitated the CMS surveys. He did confirm that the findings date back to October. "These are individual situations that involve patients, and HIPPA prevents us from discussing patient information."

On December 4th, however the medical center's CEO, Michael Nagowski, published an open letter in a local paper that referred to a review that involved "our process for discharging patients." Benbenek would not confirm that the review involved a patient who was involuntarily discharged from CFVMC and died on his way home.

He did note that the medical center "would face Medicare termination only if the surveyors do not validate our plan upon their return. We are confident that the upcoming survey will once again validate our plan and Medicare and Medicaid funding will not be terminated."

Officials at CMS's office in Atlanta declined to release any documents related to the three immediate jeopardy findings. HealthLeaders Media filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for the documents but was told it could take two weeks to receive the requested information.

Problems at CFVMC have attracted the attention of the Joint Commission, a nonprofit group that accredits and certifies thousands of hospitals nationwide. Bret Coons, a Joint Commission spokesperson, told HealthLeadersMedia in an e-mail exchange that the commission "is aware of an incident at Cape Fear Medical Center that is similar to what you described, but we can neither confirm nor deny the details. The Joint Commission's Office of Quality Monitoring is in communication with Cape Fear Medical Center and is evaluating the incident."

Coons explained that the Joint Commission reviews every complaint and potential adverse event that it has been made aware of regarding its accredited organizations. The source of any complaint is confidential.

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