FL HCA Hosp. Cost Cuts, Patient Care- Roaches in Oper. Rm, Equip.Taped, Ceiling Leaks, 'Near Misses'
- 'Doctors claim HCA Florida hospital's patient care has suffered from cost cutting,' NBC News reports, WPTV, West Palm Beach, Feb. 16, 2023. NBC News photos showing roaches in operating room, equipment taped together.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Four physicians at an HCA Healthcare hospital in Florida allege that patient care has suffered as a result of cost-cutting measures by the nation's largest hospital group, an NBC News investigation has uncovered. The doctors – three of whom requested anonymity in fear of retaliation by HCA – shared their experiences at HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital with NBC News reporter Cynthia McFadden.
All four doctors said the quality of care at the Tampa-area facility has declined significantly since 2021, when HCA cut staff and began hiring contract workers. Dr. George Giannakopoulos, a neurosurgeon and the hospital's chief of staff at the time, said there were 18 "near misses" in the operating room. One such instance occurred, he said, when the wrong side of a patient was prepared for surgery – anesthetizing a left hip that should have been the right.
Recent photographs provided to NBC News by doctors show ceiling leaks in a recovery room, oxygen equipment held together with tape, bloody and clogged sinks, wires dangling from a hole in a wall and cockroaches in the operating room. The chief executive officer at the hospital declined an interview request by NBC News, but a spokeswoman for the hospital group said in a statement that "we are continually looking for ways to improve patient safety & quality of care."
"We apply those learnings, including reports by both federal and state regulators, to ensure best practices for quality care are in place," the statement continued. "HCA Florida Bayonet Point Hospital is appropriately staffed to ensure the safe care of our patients." ---https://www.wptv.com/news/state/hca-florida-hospital-care-allegations-nbc-news
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* Read the Full Report, - NBC News Feb. 16, 2023, https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/roaches-operating-room-hca-hospital-florida-rcna69563
Excerpts:
.. Unsanitary surgical instruments, inadequate monitoring of ICU patients, an overflowing emergency department, anesthesiology errors that resulted in patients waking up while in surgery — all were allegations ripe for discussion.
.. HCA Healthcare Inc., owner of Bayonet Point, is America’s largest hospital company, operating 182 hospitals & 125 surgery centers across the nation & in the U.K. HCA is highly profitable — last year it earned $5.6 billion — & its stock is an investor favorite. But HCA’s laser focus on profits can put its patients at risk as it cuts costs & corners, say 7 of the company’s doctors in Ca., Fla., Texas, & Virginia, some of whom reached out to NBC News after our report last month about HCA. Nurses in 5 states concur. Most of HCA Florida’s that have been rated by the federal agency responsible for Medicare & Medicaid currently rank below average, & state regulators have raised issues about patient care at Bayonet Point at least twice in the past 2 years.
.. Even as Bayonet Point celebrates the opening of a new $85 million tower with 102 additional beds, recent photos of the existing facility provided by doctors show ceiling leaks in a recovery room, oxygen equipment held together with tape, bloody and backed-up sinks, wires dangling from a hole in the wall & cockroaches in the operating room.
.. Complaint surveys filed by Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration over the past 2 years buttress the physicians’ concerns about the hospital, however. Last Sept., for example, nurse-to-patient staffing ratios fell short at Bayonet Point, agency documents show, with one staff member telling government investigators that “she does not feel safe with the number of patients per nurse.” .. In April 2021, AHCA determined that Bayonet Point had “failed to enforce the emergency department policy & procedures to protect the health & safety of all patients in the hospital’s ED.” AHCA said, for example, that staffers whose sole job was to watch electronic monitors for changes in patients’ vital signs were also acting as unit secretaries, “answering phones, transferring calls, taking written messages, & being distracted by other tasks that involved them not looking at the monitors for long periods of time.”
.. Waking up during brain surgery. Florida, with its elderly population, is a big market for HCA, which has 49 hospitals there — the largest number of any state, according to its website. .. All 7 of the HCA doctors interviewed by NBC News for this article said they believe the company’s hospitals are managed to maximize growth in financial metrics and shareholder returns and that patient care suffers as a result. The new $85 million building at Bayonet Point is an example, the doctors there say. Increasing admissions by adding 102 new beds seems more important than repairing broken equipment in the existing building, eradicating pests in the operating room, or hiring staff in the emergency department, they said...
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