Medicare will drop a Pennsylvania pain management center if it doesn't correct a host of shortcomings by March 1. Among the deficiencies state health officials discovered at Valley Surgical Center in Bethlehem, Pa.: skipping pre-surgical examinations of patients, letting unlicensed staff operate X-ray equipment and letting propane gas leak inside the center for a month.
After being shuttered for 1 day in November 2011, the center's operators allegedly assured inspectors that they had taken care of the problems. But a follow-up inspection conducted on January 17 found that the problems had not been corrected. According to CMS, Valley Surgical has submitted a plan of correction and will be inspected again at the end of February, at which time the center could be reinstated if it adequately addresses its deficiencies.
The investigation into Valley Surgical began Nov. 2, 2011, after employees complained to the state department of health that they were getting headaches from odors in the building, which the center's managers told inspectors were originally caused by mold and later by a metal cup that was heated up in a microwave. State inspectors declared that patients' welfare was in "immediate jeopardy" and closed the center until the problem was resolved.
A funky odor wasn't the only problem. State inspectors uncovered 9 cases where patients weren't evaluated for anesthesia risks before surgery, 5 cases where no reports for patient discharges were found, and 11 instances in which investigators found no records of patients reviewing their medical histories, last physical results or drug allergies with their doctors.
The facility was also cited for letting uncertified staff operate X-ray equipment. Valley Surgical employees allegedly told inspectors that they work with X-ray units "pretty much all the time" after receiving on-the-job training from other employees. Additionally, an inspector who observed 3 patient procedures on Nov. 2 said the attending physician failed to perform a time out in each case.
The unusual move to drop a center from Medicare "does happen, but doesn't happen very often," says Lorraine Ryan, CMS regional public affairs spokesperson for the Philadelphia area. "Usually when facilities are faced with potential termination, they work very hard to meet the requirements. No facility wants to be dropped, and for the most part what we find is that centers work toward resolving the issues at hand and come back into compliance."
Valley Surgical Center did not respond to requests for comment.
Mark McGraw
