Regulators cite St. Luke’s
Federal officials find serious care problems at hospital, the latest in a series of setbacks
The federal government finds Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center to be in violation of key patient care requirements and says it will take a more aggressive enforcement role.
The federal government has found Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center to be in violation of key patient care requirements and notified the hospital Thursday that state and federal officials would begin taking a more aggressive role in enforcing safety standards.
The notice of deficiencies, issued in a letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is the latest in a series of setbacks for an academic hospital that has been regarded as among the nation’s best for cardiac care.
The federal agency cut off Medicare funding for heart transplants at St. Luke’s last year after an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and ProPublica documented an outsize number of patient deaths and unusual surgical complications in recent years.
Federal and state inspectors descended on the Houston hospital again last month after an emergency room patient died as the result of receiving the wrong blood type in a transfusion, according to information provided by the hospital.
That inspection revealed serious problems related to nursing care, quality assurance programs and patient rights, the letter from regulators said. A full report detailing each care deficiency was provided to the hospital Thursday and will be made public once St. Luke’s submits a corrective action plan, a spokesman for the Medicare agency said.
The latest citation does not carry the immediate threat of lost funding, but the letter from regulators said the newly uncovered deficiencies were “of such a serious nature as to substantially limit your hospital’s capacity to render adequate care.”
In a statement Thursday, St. Luke’s officials said they anticipated the federal citation and had already initiated improvement efforts.
“This is an important opportunity to focus our organization
and conduct a top-to-bottom evaluation with CMS so that we can make the changes necessary to better meet CMS standards for patient care,” said Megan Fischer, who was named vice president of quality at St. Luke’s last month.
Fischer is one of several new executives hired in recent weeks to guide St. Luke’s through its turnaround efforts. Last month the hospital’s board announced it had ousted three top executives in the wake of the fatal error involving a blood transfusion and pledged to develop a 90-day plan to improve care.
The changes come in the wake of a yearlong investigation by the Chronicle and ProPublica into problems at the hospital in recent years. The news organizations reported on poor outcomes following heart bypass surgery, repeated complaints about inadequate nursing care, a recent rise in the number of deaths after liver and lung transplants, and a physician’s allegation that he was retaliated against after raising concerns that some of his patients had received unnecessary medical treatments in intensive care units.
In response to those stories, hospital leaders repeatedly defended the quality of care provided at St. Luke’s and said any previous problems had already been corrected.
In the letter Thursday, the Medicare agency urged St. Luke’s to develop a corrective action plan but said one was not required.
The agency also notified St. Luke’s that state and federal regulators would soon conduct a comprehensive audit of the hospital to assess its compliance with all federal standards.