California hospitals fined by state for causing patient death or injury

The California Department of Public Health last week levied a total of $775,000 in fines against 12 hospitals that investigators concluded caused death or serious injury to patients, according to the Mercury News.

Two of seven deaths occurred at Seton Medical Center in Daly City, where investigators found that the hospital in 2012 failed to follow its policies and procedures with an elderly female patient who fell in a hospital shower and later died. At Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, an investigation found that the hospital used a wrong intravenous drug in 2013 without a doctor’s order on an elective heart surgery patient who died 11 days later. Both hospitals were fined $50,000.

Incidents that occurred after 2009 carry a fine of $50,000 for the first violation, $75,000 for the second, and $100,000 for the third violation. After April 1, 2014, newly adopted regulations allow the health department to impose a maximum $75,000 for the first penalty, up to $100,000 for the second, and up to $125,000 for the third and every subsequent violation within three years.

Read the Mercury News article.