As a Houston, Texas medical malpractice lawyer, I handle medical negligence and wrongful death lawsuits all over the State of Texas.
I am currently working on two active lawsuits in McLennan County, Texas based on medical care that was provided at Providence Health Center, which is located at 6901 Medical Parkway, Waco, Texas 76712.
Providence Health Center is a 237-bed general hospital that is part of the large Ascension health system. This hospital offers healthcare in areas including mental health, orthopedics, cancer, diabetes, endocrinology, emergency room, heart/cardiac, neurology, neurosurgery, pediatrics, primary care, rehabilitation, stroke, women’s health, labor/delivery/birthing, and wound care.
Quality of care concerns
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sends surveyors to conduct inspections and interviews of accredited hospitals. When a surveyor identifies a quality of care concern, the hospital may receive a violation.
Since March 2014, Waco’s Providence Health Center has been cited with 11 violations.
The most recent violation was on April 18, 2016, for failure to ensure that each patient had a discharge summary completed by a medical doctor within 30 days following discharge. Discharge paperwork is important because it allows future healthcare providers to understand past healthcare issues and treatments and to ensure a continuity of proper medical care.
On December 30, 2015, the hospital received an additional four violations. All of the violations dealt with the hospital’s failure to provide care in a safe setting. First, the Medicare/Medicaid surveyor found that Providence Health Center placed patients at risk for falls by not assessing them for fall risk and implementing interventions. Second, the surveyor found that emergency room patients were placed at risk for neglect or injury because call lights were not acceptable. Third, patient rooms in the psychiatric unit contained cracked, unclean, and sharp flooring and unclean shower stalls.
On the same date, the surveyor issued another violation because the hospital failed to provide oversight for the quality of patient care provided by nursing services. A third violation addressed the hospital’s failure to maintain accurate documentation and treatments when patients were placed at risk for further falls. The final violation on the date was critical of the hospital for failing to maintain a sanitary hospital environment, meaning that infection control officer responsibilities were unmet.
On July 8, 2015, Medicare/Medicaid issued another violation to Providence Health Center for failing to ensure proper discharge planning to a patient that needed hospice support. As a former hospital administrator, I know that discharge planning is an important part of providing healthcare to patients. The standard of care requires physicians and hospital staff to provide detailed instructions and provisions for continued health care, so patients’ health status does not dramatically deteriorate upon discharge from the hospital.
On April 29, 2014, the hospital received an additional violation for failing to ensure that medical records were completed, in that patient monitoring documentation was incomplete. The Medicare/Medicaid surveyor focused on missing documentation on the DePaul Center Behavioral Health Unit nursing monitoring flow sheet.
The final four Medicare/Medicaid violations issued to Providence Health Center are from March 19, 2014. For the first violation, the surveyor found that the hospital’s governing body did not appoint a chief executive officer (CEO) who was responsible for management of the hospital. The second violation arose from the hospital’s failure to protect patient rights to participate in the development and implementation of a care plan.
The third violation stemmed from the hospital’s failure to require appropriate staff to have education, training, and demonstrated knowledge of the use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).The surveyor found that a registered nurse did not have current CPR training. The final violation on the date found that the hospital did not have a registered nurse that adequately supervised and evaluated the nursing care for each patient.
We are here to help
If you or a loved one has been seriously injured by healthcare provided at Providence Health Center, the experienced medical negligence attorneys at Painter Law Firm, in Houston, Texas, are here to help. Click here to send us a confidential email via our “Contact Us” form or call us at 281-580-8800.
All consultations are free and, because we only represent clients on a contingency fee, you will owe us nothing unless we win your case.
Many of our clients have told us that they find it difficult to find attorneys who will tackle local hospitals. This is not an issue for us. You can read about some of our litigation against Providence Health Center here and in from the Waco Tribune Herald here.
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Robert Painter is a medical malpractice attorney at Painter Law Firm PLLC, in Houston, Texas. He is a former hospital administrator who represents patients and family members in medical negligence and wrongful death lawsuits against hospitals, physicians, surgeons, anesthesiologists, and other healthcare providers. In 2017, H Texas magazine named him one of Houston’s top lawyers. Also in 2017, the Better Business Bureau recognized Painter Law Firm PLLC with its Award of Distinction.
