CHI St. Luke’s Heath Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center, located at 6720 Bertner Avenue, Houston, TX 77030, is one of the major academic hospitals in the Texas Medical Center.
Since 2014, the hospital has been jointly owned by Baylor College of Medicine and CHI St. Luke’s Health.
It offers comprehensive services including bariatric surgery, cardiovascular care and surgery, ear nose and throat (ENT) care, emergency medicine, endocrinology, ophthalmology, gastroenterology, kidney/nephrology care, liver care, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, orthopedics and sports medicine, plastic and reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation, pulmonology care, rheumatology care, spine surgery and care, general surgical services, urology, and wound care.
As a Houston, Texas medical malpractice attorney, I’ve handled multiple cases and lawsuits where care at CHI St. Luke’s Heath Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center was at issue. Most recently, I’ve been working on a case where operating room staff left a large surgical towel inside a patient’s body after the procedure. It wasn’t discovered for months and led to a festering infection that was a major setback to the patient.
When evaluating potential cases against any hospital, we do a deep dive into other cases and reported incidents. I’m always interested in knowing whether we are dealing with an isolated incident or mistake, or whether there’s a pattern of poor care at play. Considering that Texas provides hospitals with numerous privileges that allow them to legally keep quality of care information secret from the public, one of the best places to look for information is the federal government.
When it comes to St. Luke’s, I recently finished reading the latest survey results from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The 203-page report of citations lists myriad quality of care issues.
As a former hospital administrator, one violation really caught my attention and caused me great concern. The Medicare surveyor found that the leadership at CHI St. Luke’s Heath Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center failed to develop a quality assessment and performance improvement program.
In other words, the government surveyor felt that the hospital wasn’t making it a priority or taking the time to learn from its mistakes. I can’t think of something more important the hospital leaders should be doing. In my experience, this type of failure leads to repeated avoidable mistakes that endanger patient safety.
If you’ve been seriously injured as a result of poor care at St. Luke’s, a top-rated Houston, Texas medical malpractice lawyer can help you investigate your potential claim. Remember that time is of the essence. Texas has a general two-year statute of limitations for negligence cases.
