Becker's Hospital Review

75 FINANCE CMO / CARE DELIVERY Sutter hospital fined $155K over infection control violations after nurse's death By Mackenzie Bean C alifornia health officials fined Oak- land, Calif.-based Alta Bates Summit Medical Center $155,250 over work- place infection control standards, the Cali- fornia Nurses Association said March 19. e state's division of occupational safety and health investigated the medical center, part of the Sutter Health network, aer hos- pital nurse Janine Paiste-Ponder, RN, died of COVID-19 in July 2020. "We know that Janine became ill when she ran aer two Covid positive patients who were in the hallways because she feared that they would infect other patients or staff," said Paula Lyn, RN, a nurse at Alta Bates Sum- mit and a board member of the California Nurses Association, which represents nurs- es at the hospital. "Because the hospital had locked up N95 respirators, and Janine was wearing only a surgical mask as per hospital policy, she was exposed and became ill." e state's OSHA division issued eight ci- tations to Alta Bates Summit for violating numerous state infectious disease control standards. e citations included failure to ensure COVID-19 patients were proper- ly isolated, failure to provide N95 masks to nurses who worked on Ms. Paiste-Ponder's unit and improperly requiring nurses to reuse N95 masks. Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health said it disagrees with the state's findings and immediately appealed the citations. "None of the findings are specific to the pass- ing of our beloved colleague," a spokesperson for the system told Becker's. "We continue to mourn her loss and are disappointed that her memory is being used for political gain." n Missouri physician collects $26M in wrongful termination lawsuit By Ayla Ellison A n emergency room physician will collect $26 million in a wrongful termination lawsuit against ER staffing company EmCare after orig- inally being awarded $29 million in the case, according to an April KCUR report. Raymond Brovont, MD, sued two subsidiaries of Dallas-based EmCare in 2018, claiming the company wrongfully terminated him after he raised con- cerns about staffing issues at Overland Park (Kan.) Regional Medical Center. The staffing decisions at the hospital were made by EmCare. In October 2018, a jury in Jackson County, Mo., awarded Dr. Brovont $29 million, which included $20 million in punitive damages. A trial judge re- duced the award to $13.1 million after applying punitive damages caps under Kansas law, according to the report. Both sides filed an appeal in the case, and the Missouri Court of Appeals ruled in October that the trial judge wrongly applied the Kansas cap on punitive damages to EmCare's Missouri subsidiary. The original award was reduced to $23 million and upped to $26 million after post-judgment inter- est was added, according to the report. The Missouri Supreme Court refused to review the case, bringing an end to the litigation. n Wisconsin hospital replaces anesthesiologists with CRNAs By Ayla Ellison W atertown (Wis.) Regional Medical Center replaced its anes- thesiologists with certified registered nurse anesthetists, and some physicians aren't happy about the change, according to Medscape Medical News. In an undated letter shared March 28 on Twitter, the community hospital's CEO, Richard Keddington, said the medical center is moving to a CRNA model in its anesthesia department. "This is a very common model in hospitals our size … and the literature is clear that care quality and outcomes are just as good with CRNAs," the letter said. The hospital and Envision, a medical staffing company that works with the hospital, didn't respond to Medscape's requests for comment. Some physicians expressed concern with the change on Twitter and Facebook. Many of the comments were shared in a closed Facebook group linked to Physicians for Patient Protection, according to the report. One surgeon at the hospital told Medscape he has no problem with the CRNA model. "It's a misconception that physicians are required to administer anesthesia," Adam Dachman, DO, told Medscape. n

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