By Lora Hines, The Press-Enterprise, Riverside, Calif.
(MCT)
Sept. 08--Riverside Community Hospital has been fined $50,000 after a metal clamp was
left in a patient during a 2009 surgery, according to state regulators.
The hospital was one of 12 facilities statewide that recently was fined
for putting patients in immediate jeopardy for serious injury or death. It is
Riverside Community's first fine. The California Department of Public Health,
which oversees hospitals, announced the penalties Wednesday.
Pam Fossdick, acting deputy director of the state Public Health
Department's Center for Health Care Quality, said the department has been
working with hospitals to educate employees and enact policies to prevent
harmful errors.
At least seven hospitals in Riverside County and six in San Bernardino
County have been fined since 2007, when the state Legislature gave the
department the authority to fine hospitals for medical errors that put
patients at risk of serious injury or death.
"They will decrease over time," Fossdick said.
Cherie Russell, Riverside Community's spokeswoman, said the hospital
would pay the fine. An object was left in a patient during a June 2009
operation, she said. It was discovered as the patient was preparing for a
follow-up surgery that was scheduled three months later. The object was
removed during the second surgery, Russell said.
Medical workers at an imaging center discovered that a surgical clamp had
been left in an unidentified patient while performing a CT scan sometime
around Sept. 4, 2009, according to a state Public Health Department report.
Surgeons removed the clamp 13 days later, the report states.
An investigation revealed that the surgical staff lost count of
instruments used during the first operation in violation of hospital policy.
Hospital officials on Sept. 11, 2009, reported the incident to state Public
Health Department officials.
Hospital administrators updated policies regarding surgical instrument
counts and documentation and retrained staff to correct problems, Russell
said..
Medication errors account for the highest number of penalties, followed
by retention of objects during surgery, said department spokesman Ralph
Montano.
Since 2007, the state Public Health Department has issued almost 200
penalties totaling an estimated $6.8 million to nearly 125 hospitals. So far,
it has collected about $4.6 million.
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