THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS: MEDICARE REPORT - JULY 12, 2002
D.C. Hospital's Program Status Threatened After Government Studies Find Deficiencies
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has notified a Washington, D.C., hospital that recent surveys found deficiencies in its services, which could lead CMS to remove the hospital from the Medicare program.
In a June 24 letter to Greater Southeast Community Hospital, CMS said a health survey conducted on March 22 and fire safety survey conducted on April 24 found "serious" deficiencies that "require immediate attention."
As a result of the surveys, Greater Southeast has lost its "deemed" status, CMS's recognition that it has fulfilled all the requirements for Medicare services, although it will receive Medicare reimbursement.
In the letter, CMS stated that it would initiate "action to terminate [Greater Southeast's] facility from the Medicare program" if Greater Southeast did not comply with "an acceptable plan of correction."
A spokeswoman for Greater Southeast told BNA July 9 that the hospital submitted a letter of correction. The hospital will not regain its deemed status until CMS is able to conduct another study of the hospital's facilities.
CMS investigator Jamie C. Clark told BNA July 10 that she had received the hospital's plan of correction.
CMS's letter came shortly after a June 20 announcement from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, Greater Southeast's accreditor, that the hospital was downgraded from full accreditation to "conditional accreditation." The private accreditation body cited problems with initial assessment procedures, medication use, safety issues, and staff credentials.
Hospital: Problems Solved. The staff and management of Greater Southeast say the problems cited in the report have been addressed, and that most of the problems were inherited from previous management. Doctors Community Health Care purchased Southeast in 1999, when the struggling hospital was threatened with bankruptcy.
"It was addressed and corrected in March," Sharon Kirsch, vice president of corporate communications at Doctor's Community Health Care, told BNA. "The vast majority of issues were not patient-oriented."
CMS would not release any information about the specifics of the deficiencies. According to Greater Southeast and Doctor's Community Health Care, problems included miscalibrated machines, procedures for documenting patients' vital signs, policies regarding informed consent clauses, safety policies and procedures, and issues relating to doctors' credentials.
Although the JCAHO and CMS reports are independent, Greater Southeast indicated that many of the issues contained in the two reports were identical.
"They were outstanding learning experiences," Dr. Christopher J. Ackerman, chief medical officer at Greater Southeast, told BNA. "We were very forthright with our problems. We needed to know what issues were out there."
A spokeswoman for CMS said that hospitals do not often lose deemed status. She estimated that in 2001, approximately 10 hospitals in CMS's Region 3, which includes Washington, D.C., encountered similar actions.
BY ALEX PARKER
