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Investigators find numerous problems at Marin (CA) General Hospital

Patient Safety Monitor Alert, April 14, 2004

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The California state Department of Health Services (DHS) surveyed Marin General Hospital (MGH) on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services after receiving several patient complaints. Surveyors discovered nurses who were not properly trained to use cardiac monitors, improper handling of drugs, and supervisors who failed to respond to abuse allegations. Investigators are also looking into a patient's death.

The federal investigation is the first of its kind for the current MGH hospital administration. Approximately 30 hospitals out of more than 600 in California are investigated annually as a result of complaints, according to DHS officials.

Some of the surveyor findings included

• Complaints of patient abuse and inadequate policies for dealing with such reports
• Inadequate cardiac monitoring policies, such as failing to ensure nurses were adequately trained on using the monitors and securing equipment after a patient incident
• Improper storage of refrigerated medications
• Failure to administer medications in a timely manner

Allegations of abuse included a 63-year-old woman with abdominal pain who claimed a technician touched her inappropriately and an elderly woman with pneumonia who claimed a nurse refused to giver her cough medicine.

Hospitals leaders said they were aware of some of these problems and had taken steps to address them.

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