ASHEVILLE – Immediate jeopardy at Mission Hospital has been removed, but persisting issues have prompted the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to set a new deadline by which the hospital must achieve compliance. If it does not meet the deadline, the hospital could have its Medicare provider agreement terminated.
In a Feb. 27 letter to Mission Hospital CEO Greg Lowe, CMS officials indicated that the immediate jeopardy status placed on the hospital in late January had been removed Feb. 13. However, the hospital remained noncompliant with Medicare conditions of participation in the areas of patient rights, nursing services and infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship programs.
It is among the most severe federal citations that can be placed against a hospital. Mission Hospital is Western North Carolina’s only Level I trauma center, the highest recognition a trauma provider can receive in the United States…