18 Hospitals Fined by State

Photo by neovain via Flickr

Earlier this month, the FBI raided three local hospitals for alleged Medicare fraud. Then yesterday, the state fined eighteen hospitals $25,000 each "for state health code violations in which patients died from various mishaps such as an improperly inserted tube and a ventilator that wasn't turned on," according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. "Other violations include surgical tools left inside patients after surgery."

LA County-USC Medical Center was fined for not providing enough nursing staff for a suicide watch and meeting the needs for a patient. At Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, inaccurate tissue specimen labels led to an unnecessary surgery for a patient, resulting a delay for the actual patient. They also did not provide "screening examinations and stabilizing medical care and treatment in a timely manner for two patients" in the emergency department.

Other hospitals fined were in Riverside, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Palm Springs San Pablo, Fountain Valley, La Mesa, Newport Beach, Fresno, Los Alamitos, Poway and San Diego.