State declines to investigate vast majority of hospital complaints

Illinois officials didn't look into 85 percent of the 560 hospital complaints received last year, even when the reports alleged violations such as patient abuse

November 06, 2011|By Megan Twohey, Chicago Tribune reporter

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Jeanine Thomas contracted an infection in her leg during ankle surgery at a Chicago hospital, causing septic shock and organ failure, she said. She became an advocate for hospital safety. “These complaints can reveal real problems," she said. "If the state doesn’t investigate, the problems will repeat themselves over and over.” (Keri Wiginton/Chicago Tribune)

A patient at Harrisburg Medical Center complained to the state that a bacterial infection spreading through the hospital had already killed one person and that nurses and doctors did not wear protective gowns and gloves.
How did Illinois officials respond? They declined to investigate.
At Adventist Bolingbrook Hospital, a patient was pricked by dirty needles, prompting preventive treatment for HIV.

 

State regulators chose not to pursue that case, too.
They also took a pass on allegations that a staffer at Streamwood Behavioral Health Center assaulted a patient, causing a possible spinal injury, and that a nurse misused an IV machine at Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital, leading to a near fatal overdose, a Tribune investigation found.
The Illinois Department of Public Health declined to investigate 85 percent of the 560 hospital complaints it received last year, even when the reports alleged violations such as patient abuse and inadequate infection control, records show. Some allegations of serious harm or death were not pursued even though federal law requires that such claims be investigated within 48 hours.
"These are serious complaints," said Lisa McGiffert, director of the national Consumers Union Safe Patient Project. "If the regulatory system is collecting these complaints and not responding, that is a massive failure of oversight."
Complaints can reveal crucial systemic problems, experts say. And when it finds violations, the state can order hospitals to make corrections.
But Illinois regulators say they don't have the funding to investigate. And the hospital industry has fought proposals to pay for the investigations with fees that amount to pennies a day per hospital bed.
Complaints about the same hospital can pile up without any investigations, according to thousands of records reviewed by the Tribune.
During a six-week period last fall, regulators received four complaints alleging that patients at Greater Peoria Specialty Hospital were being left in their feces and that sores caused by neglect were becoming infected.
One complaint came from a hospital staffer who said patients "are not given appropriate care … not bathed or given oral care … have wounds from not being turned and changed."
Public health department spokeswoman Melaney Arnold said the department works to address serious allegations.
But it "does not have the funding needed to investigate complaints, to conduct routine hospital surveys and ensure the health and safety of patients," she said in an email.
Feds rarely investigate
The state agency spent $498,000 on hospital oversight in 2010 — half from the federal government, half in state matching funds.

 

Federal officials said they would have investigated some of the complaints highlighted by the Tribune had the state brought them to their attention.
"We are working with the state agency to improve the complaint triage process going forward," said Elizabeth Surgener, spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
But it's rare for the federal agency to investigate on its own. And it has declined to fund some investigations sought by state regulators, records show.
When regulators don't investigate, those who complain can feel helpless.
"They just glaze over them like it's not important. Even if there's something not safe to the patients, they don't do anything," said a nurse at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, who declined to be identified for fear of being disciplined by her employer.
The nurse submitted a complaint in 2009 when the hospital was under different ownership, alleging that nursing levels in the newborn unit were far below state requirements, only to be told the regulators would not investigate.
In its response, the public health department stated it would forward her complaint to the organization that accredited the hospital but said by law it could notgive her name to the group.
Regulators refer many complaints to accrediting organizations, but these private groups are not required to investigate allegations, disclose whether they do, or share findings with public health officials.
Other hospital employees saw their allegations go uninvestigated as well, records show.
Among them was a complaint from a former staff member of Franciscan St. James Health, who said the south suburban facility overlooked health records of employees, including results of an employment physical that showed a new hire had tuberculosis.
"It's negligence," said Jeanine Thomas, of Willowbrook, who began advocating for hospital safety after nearly dying of an infection acquired in a Chicago hospital. "These complaints can reveal real problems. If the state doesn't investigate, the problems will repeat themselves over and over."