31 hours ago · CBS Evening News tells his story: The latest investigation by USA TODAY has found that 17 states have “no mandate to report patient deaths after surgery center care. So no facility oversight authority has examined whether the deaths were a statistical anomaly or cause for alarm.”. Furthermore: >> Go To The Portal
In at least 17 states, health facility officials confirmed they have no way to know that a patient died because surgery centers have no duty to report.
Colorado requires surgery centers to report deaths and some major injuries to the state health department, and the agency posts summaries of incidents online for consumers. Several other states — including Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey — require incident reports but don’t reveal to the public where they happened.
So just as in Arkansas, surgery centers had no mandate to notify an official over cases outlined in lawsuits, including a 33-year-old Missouri man who died after finger surgery, a 66-year-old Georgia woman who died after an eye procedure or a 60-year-old in Oklahoma who died soon after a total hip replacement.
The death should also be reported as a serious incident using form DCF-F-CFS2146-E, Serious Incident Report (link is external) (Word). Forms can be found at the Child Welfare Licensed Facility Forms and Publications (link is external) website.
For the investigation, USA Today and KHN examined state and federal oversight of U.S. surgery centers, which now outnumber hospitals and are increasingly conducting complex surgical procedures.
USA Today and KHN found that surgery centers are subject to widely varying safety and transparency rules in different parts of the United States.
Bill Prentice, executive director of ASCA, said U.S. surgical centers safely perform a broad range of procedures, including knee replacements and tonsillectomies, each year. Prentice said he supports allowing patients to access data that would allow them to compare surgery centers with hospital outpatient departments.
Want the latest information for your next surgical services meeting? We updated our most popular slides on general surgery with the latest market trends.
Several other states – including Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey – require incident reports but don’t reveal to the public where they happened. In at least 17 states, health facility officials confirmed they have no way to know that a patient died because surgery centers have no duty to report.
Medicare pulled its certification from Cascade Cosmetic Surgery Center in Orem, Utah, on Dec. 28, 2014, after state inspectors said the center failed to meet basic standards mandated by federal regulations.
Ronald Smith, 63, died at a hospital after visiting Kanis for a colonoscopy. His family later alleged in a lawsuit that Smith’s sleep apnea and heart disease made him “extremely high risk” for undergoing anesthesia at the center, rather than at a hospital.
So just as in Arkansas, surgery centers had no mandate to notify an official over cases outlined in lawsuits, including a 33-year-old Missouri man who died after finger surgery, a 66-year-old Georgia woman who died after an eye procedure or a 60-year-old in Oklahoma who died soon after a total hip replacement.
Medicare made a very different move in July, proposing to stop collecting surgery center-to-hospital transfer data and seven other measures of quality. The agency said it still plans to report on incidents gleaned from its own records, such as visits to the hospital seven days after certain surgery center procedures.
Exit Full Screen. The first man died in April 2014. Another died later that month. Then, on July 18 of that year, a woman was rushed to a hospital where she was told she was lucky to be alive. They all went to the same Little Rock, Arkansas, surgery center for a colonoscopy, among the safest procedures a patient can have.
In practice, that has allowed surgery centers to report as many hospital transfers as they choose – unless more than half of their patients leave by ambulance. Yet a person examining the data on the Medicare website would see no explanation about the limits of the information.
In 2015, emergency medical service records show 14 patients were transported to a hospital. A spokesman for HCA Healthcare said some transfers were not required to be reported to Medicare.
In 2015, the center reported 18 transfers to the state; the prior year, it reported 27. The center administrator said he “put in place corrective measures” and “provided [Medicare] with the corrected information.”
Ronald Smith, 63, died at a hospital after visiting Kanis for a colonoscopy. His family later alleged in a lawsuit that Smith’s sleep apnea and heart disease made him “extremely high risk” for undergoing anesthesia at the center, rather than at a hospital.
So just as in Arkansas, surgery centers had no mandate to notify an official over cases outlined in lawsuits, including a 33-year-old Missouri man who died after finger surgery, a 66-year-old Georgia woman who died after an eye procedure or a 60-year-old in Oklahoma who died soon after a total hip replacement.
Medicare made a very different move in July, proposing to stop collecting surgery center-to-hospital transfer data and seven other measures of quality. The agency said it still plans to report on incidents gleaned from its own records, like visits to the hospital seven days after certain surgery center procedures.
states that fatalities or serious injuries can result in no warning to government officials, much less to potential patients. The gaps in oversight enable centers hit with federal regulators’ toughest sanctions ...
Medicare publishes rates that purport to show how often individual surgery centers send patients to the hospital. But state data and EMS reports reveal that some centers reporting zero transfers to Medicare actually did send patients to hospitals.
Within 24 hours after the death of a client or learning of a death: The program or facility that was providing care, treatment or services to the client is required under Wisconsin statutes to notify the Department of Health Services (DHS) if there is cause to believe that the death was related to: a suspected suicide.
A hospice must report restraint/seclusion deaths directly to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Office of the Regional Administrator (Chicago Regional Office) at 312-886-6432. The hospice must report: Each unexpected death that occurs while a patient is in restraint or seclusion. Each unexpected death that occurs within 24 hours ...
Each unexpected death that occurs within 24 hours after the patient has been removed from restraint or seclusion. Each death known to the hospice that occurs within one week after restraint or seclusion where it is reasonable to assume that use of restraint or placement in seclusion contributed directly or indirectly to a patient's death.
Form F-62470 includes guidelines to assist programs and facilities in determining if there is reasonable cause to believe the client/patient/resident death may be related to the use of restraint/seclusion, the use of psychotropic medication or is a suspected suicide.