Documents obtained by Asheville Watchdog detail an array of staff errors, communication breakdowns and technological problems at Mission Hospital that state and federal regulators said put patients’ lives and safety at risk and that still threaten the hospital’s ability to continue receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding.
The documents — each the findings from a survey by North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services investigators, one in September and the other last month — describe overlapping problems that led the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to issue a citation of immediate jeopardy, one of the most severe sanctions a hospital can face. While immediate jeopardy has been lifted, according to CMS, Mission remains out of compliance with federal rules.
The first survey, conducted over two weeks in September, recommended immediate jeopardy based on multiple deficiencies in the care of three patients. Two died — one after equipment monitoring their blood oxygen levels failed during transport, the other after he became disconnected from equipment monitoring his vital signs and went more than three hours without being checked on by nursing staff. The third was misidentified in the hospital’s information system as another patient…