Fresno area hospitals and healthcare facilities racked up tens of thousands of dollars in penalties for putting patients in harm’s way or contributing to their deaths.
California issued 43 “immediate jeopardy” penalties to hospitals and healthcare facilities statewide, for $2,850,000 in penalties, according to the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Health Care Quality state enforcement actions dashboard. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services define immediate jeopardy as noncompliance that “has placed the health and safety of recipients in its care at risk for serious injury, serious harm, serious impairment or death.” It is the most serious type of deficiency or violation. In California, citations for these violations can result in administrative fines between $25,000 to $125,000.
Sixteen, or 37%, of these citations were issued to Valley based healthcare institutions in Fresno, Kern, Madera, Merced, Tulare, Stanislaus counties…