California: Thirteen Hospitals Fined over Risking People’s Lives

California Department of Public Health fined or sent citations to thirteen hospitals for endangering patients’ lives, its officials announced, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The hospitals, which failed to ensure patients are on good hands included two Los Angeles public hospitals, Harbor-UCLA and Olive View-UCLA medical centers, Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital of Orange, Orange County’s largest hospital. The list continues with Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, Santa Teresa Community Hospital, part of the Kaiser system, and the Santa Cruz-based Dominican Hospital, part of Catholic Healthcare West.

This was not the first time when such fines or citations are issued. The California Department of Public Health said some hospitals were at their third violation since a state law went into effect in 2007 allowing authorities to fine facilities, which put people’s lives in jeopardy. The value of each fine was $25,000.

Overall, the agency has issued 39 citations since October.

“While these incidents are terrible new, the fact that there appears to be movement in terms of oversight of medical errors is good news for consumers. The problems of medical errors in the medical system have been well documented, but progress has been painfully slow,” Glenn Melnick, a health economist for Rand Corp, said, as quoted by the Times.