The California Department of Public Health has  assessed 16 fines against 13 hospitals for noncompliance with licensing  requirements that have caused, or were likely to cause, serious injury or death  to patients.

Called “administrative penalties”, the charges were  issued for infractions during 2008 and 2009. Incidents that occurred in 2008  carry a fine of $25,000. Incidents that occurred in 2009 carry a fine of  $50,000 for the first violation, $75,000 for the second, and $100,000 for the  third or subsequent violation at the same facility.

The difference in fine amounts is due to a new law  that took effect last year, when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed  legislation that more than doubled administrative penalties for “violations or  deficiencies constituting an immediate jeopardy to the health and safety of  patients.”

Hospitals were required to implement a plan of  correction to prevent future incidents, and they are allowed to appeal an  administrative penalty by requesting a hearing.

Here are typical examples of the medical errors that  resulted in fines:

California Hospital Medical Center was fined $50,000  after an emergency room resident misdiagnosed a woman as having an ectopic pregnancy  — a complication of pregnancy in which the fetus implants outside the uterine  cavity — when in fact she was not pregnant. The woman was needlessly treated  with immunosuppressive drugs, causing her mouth, throat and skin to break out  in sores.

Los Angeles Community Hospital in Norwalk, CA, was  fined $50,000 for failing to follow a physician’s orders to restrain a patient  who repeatedly pulled out his tracheotomy tube. The patient was found  unresponsive in his bed, and could not be revived.

Hoag Memorial Hospital, Newport Beach, Orange County,  failed to protect the health and safety of a patient while providing diagnostic  services. This was the hospital’s third penalty. A patient with breast cancer  which had already metastasized to her lungs and brain was wheeled into an MRI  room in a metal wheelchair, which was “immediately forcibly attracted by the  magnet against the outer core of the magnet housing, crushing the left lower  extremity of the patient and trapping the patient between the magnet and the metal  wheelchair...”.

John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital, Indio, CA, received  four $25,000 fines for various infractions, including two instances of failing  to properly assess and monitor patients’ vital signs; injecting a drug  intravenously that should have been injected subcutaneously thereby causing  damage to a patient’s heart; and for failing to recognize, diagnose and  properly treat a two-day old infant, resulting in the infant’s death.

Other hospitals fined were Grossmont Hospital, La  Mesa, CA; Kaiser Foundation Hospital — Oakland/Richmond, Oakland, CA; Marina  Del Rey Hospital, Los Angeles, CA; San Francisco General Hospital, San  Francisco, CA; Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose, CA; Sharp Memorial  Hospital, San Diego, CA; St. Jude Medical Center, Fullerton, CA; University of  California, San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, CA; and Western Medical  Center, Santa Ana, CA.

Since January 2007, when these procedures were first  required by law, the state has issued 134 fines against 90 hospitals for a  total of $2.3 million.

Maybe these fines will help reduce the errors in  hospitals and make them a safer environment for all.

SOURCE: California Department of Public Health, http://www.cdph.ca.gov/Pages/NR10-006-CDPHISSUES16ADMINISTRATIVEPENALTIESTO13HOSPITALS.aspx.