Violations found at North Carolina hospital

The death of a 76-year-old man and a list of other violations triggered an investigation that almost cost Louisburg, NC-based Franklin Regional Medical Center its federal dollars to treat poor and elderly patients. Franklin Regional was found by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to have acted unacceptably after the elderly patient arrived at the hospital for an elective knee surgery and complained to the nurse that he had chest pains and loss of feeling in his left arm. The man died of heart failure the following day. The case is one of several failures outlined in a 44-page report from the CMS, resulting in a threat to pull Franklin Regional's federal funding, a major revenue stream for the hospital.