Source: NOLA.com
After multiple federal and state inspectors found patient care in jeopardy at a for-profit hospital in northwest Louisiana, lawmakers are hoping to hold the Dallas-based owner of Glenwood Regional Medical Center accountable at a hearing before the House Health and Welfare Committee, according to State Rep. Michael Echols.
“It’s an abysmal situation,” said Echols, R-Monroe. “The Steward group has done some criminal, if not very egregious things, by way of health care delivery. They hurt people, and we need to have a proper hearing.”
Echols’ office has been fielding calls weekly from patients and employees of the West Monroe hospital, which serves not only western Ouachita Parish but numerous rural parishes in the region.
The requested hearing, tentatively scheduled for April 4, comes after lawmakers voiced concerns about substandard care to the Louisiana Department of Health. On Wednesday, LDH sent legislators a letter saying the hospital has until May 12 to correct problems or risks losing federal funding.
If Glenwood does not correct issues related to supplies and staffing, losing funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid would almost certainly cause the hospital to shut down.
Steward has not responded to multiple emailed questions about the issues identified by inspectors or the availability of services.
Weekly inspections, closing units
The troubled hospital, which has twice been cited since December for putting patients in “immediate jeopardy” of harm, is now subject to weekly monitoring visits from state inspectors, according to the letter.
But already, Glenwood is shrinking. The 278-bed hospital is limited to 91 patients. The rehab unit closed on Wednesday.
The hospital is one of 33 facilities owned by the national for-profit chain Steward Health, a private-equity-backed system. It has come under fire for not paying its bills, which allegedly caused patient harm at hospitals in Massachusetts, according to multiple news reports.
In one Massachusetts Steward hospital, a patient allegedly died a day after giving birth when doctors realized mid-surgery that supplies to stop bleeding had been repossessed, according to articles in The Boston Globe. At another Massachusetts hospital, a patient allegedly collapsed and died after standing in line in a overcrowded emergency room, the Globe reported.
In statements to other news outlets, Steward has blamed financial struggles in part on relatively low compensation for Medicaid patients. Officials in Massachusetts have rejected that claim.
Glenwood’s problems
Steward owns one hospital in Louisiana. At Glenwood, special beds to prevent bedsores were repossessed, forcing patients to move mid-stay, according to federal inspection reports from December obtained by The Times-Picayune. The hospital ran out of biopsy needles, catheters and central lines. Machines to scan bones, conduct mammograms and give MRIs broke and were not fixed. Patients had to be transferred for advanced care, even when their medical team said the transfer was unsafe.
“I’ve had a number of meetings with various employees, including friends who work there or used to work there,” said State Senator Jay Morris, R-Monroe. “By all accounts, it’s a complete disaster.”
Last April, ten physicians expressed ”deep concern” over situations unfolding at the hospital, according to a letter sent to the hospital’s governing body from the medical executive committee. It was signed by several chiefs of staff and the chief medical officer.
They didn’t have supplies for routine heart procedures. They ran out of the suction canisters that clear patient airways. The company that supplies blood told the hospital their credit was running out. Shipments of food and milk were paused at times due to unpaid bills.
By December, conditions resembled “third-world medicine,” according to one doctor quoted in the federal inspection reports. The situation was addressed, according to the reports, but the hospital again was cited by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for immediate jeopardy in February, according to the letter to lawmakers.
Echols sees Steward executives as “health care terrorists” and would like to see them criminally punished for their negligence. The residents of West Monroe want them out, he said.
“They want a different operator,” said Echols. “That organization is professionally negligent.”
Staff does not have supplies for basic procedures and patients are getting dangerous infections, he said. “I would even anticipate that patients have been not only injured but killed based on the negligence.”
Sen. Morris said a sale or closure was “inevitable.”
“Steward does not have the financial wherewithal to continue operations in a way that’s satisfactory to the public,” he claimed. “They need to be cooperative and concede that they don’t have the ability and make a reasonable deal with one of our local operators.”