The Pennsylvania Department of Health initiated “special monitoring” investigations into the hospital, part of Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine, after an anonymous complaint. This type of probe occurs when the department suspects ongoing issues at an organization, a spokesperson told Penn Live.
State reports cited by the publication show a surgical team at the hospital performed reconstruction surgery on a patient’s wrong ankle in December. A staff member marked the correct ankle prior to surgery, but did not place the mark within two inches of the surgical site, as per hospital policy. Another employee placed a tourniquet on the wrong leg, and the surgical team realized the error shortly after the operation.
Two months prior to this incident, the hospital was also cited for failing to fill a diabetes patient’s insulin pump and for not reporting the death of a woman who died from bleeding complications several weeks after a cesarean section. The state fined the hospital $40,000 for these reporting failures and ordered Lancaster General to create correction plans for all other citations.
“Ensuring the safety of all patients is our top priority. We take any regulatory or inspection findings very seriously and are cooperating fully with the PA Department of Health on these matters,” a spokesperson for Lancaster General Hospital told Becker’s.
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