Due to this agreement, Good Shepherd can continue seeing patients without interruption.
The hospital had various issues that put patients at risk, including inappropriate use of chemical and physical restraints used for staff convenience, improper oversight of surgical instrument reprocessing and patient exposure to high levels of chlorine.
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According to a CMS statement sent to local news station KXII in 2014, a Systems Improvement Agreement “allows a hospital to continue receiving CMS funding while a third party monitors its policies, facilities and patient care until the serious problems that caused the facility to fall out of compliance are fixed. The agreement grants the hospital additional time to make sustainable improvements in complex quality, cultural, policy and procedural deficiencies.”
Good Shepherd President and CEO Steve Altmiller said, “We are grateful for the opportunity to address the issues identified by CMS and are committed to exceeding their expectations.”
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