For the third time in less than two years, Mission Hospital faces sanctions that could result in it losing crucial federal funding, CEO Greg Lowe told employees in a letter Thursday night.<\/p>\n
The letter, obtained Friday by Asheville Watchdog, said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had notified the hospital that it had been placed in immediate jeopardy. The finding, which means that deficiencies at the hospital endanger patients\u2019 lives and safety, is one of the most serious sanctions a hospital can face. Including a 2021 determination, it is the fourth time CMS has placed Mission in immediate jeopardy since HCA Healthcare bought the nonprofit Mission Health system in 2019.<\/p>\n
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Greg Lowe, president of HCA-owned Mission Health, sent this email letter to employees Thursday evening, announcing that the health system\u2019s flagship hospital, Mission, has again been placed in \u201cimmediate jeopardy\u201d by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for practices that endanger patients. It is the third immediate jeopardy citation for Mission in the past two years. \/\/ Phone numbers redacted by Asheville Watchdog <\/p>\n
Mission must now fix the deficiencies or risk the termination of the federal contract that allows it to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments. The finding followed a visit by state regulators, which the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said took place Jan. 6 through 9.<\/p>\n
It is not clear what problems led regulators to make the latest immediate jeopardy recommendation. A CMS spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment. Lowe said the hospital would bring aboard an independent consultant \u201cto improve processes and systems necessary to ensure CMS compliance and quality care for our patients.\u201d He also noted that, in \u201cmany cases,\u201d hospital staff and patients are taking concerns directly to CMS, bypassing Mission\u2019s grievance process.<\/p>\n
State Sen. Julie Mayfield, who has been a critic of HCA\u2019s management of Mission, said in a text message Friday morning that she was grateful for CMS\u2019s continued involvement at the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am particularly pleased to hear about the independent consultant or monitor who will be providing oversight and guidance to ensure HCA gets it right,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cThis is something the community has been asking for for quite a while, because HCA has struggled to make permanent improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Mayfield is also a founder of Reclaim Healthcare WNC, a coalition that has called for more accountability for HCA, but clarified that she was not speaking on behalf of the coalition.)<\/p>\n
A hospital spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Kerri Wilson, a registered nurse and chairperson of the nursing union\u2019s professional practice committee, which lobbies hospital administration for policy improvements, said it was validating for CMS to again acknowledge the \u201cprocesses and the systems that we keep saying are putting patients in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Previous immediate jeopardy findings have ended with what she described as bandaid solutions: The hospital places blame, calls for more education for its staff, and moves on. She said it\u2019s clear more systemic solutions are called for. At the top of the list is hiring more staff, she said, but other areas need improvement, too, from the cumbersome processes involved in moving patients from the emergency department to other units to the quality of medical supplies.<\/p>\n
She hopes that this sanction will mark a turning point. Hospital administration had requested a meeting with the union\u2019s staffing committee \u2014 typically a sign that it\u2019s considering cutting jobs, she said \u2014\u00a0but abruptly canceled earlier this week; Lowe\u2019s immediate jeopardy announcement soon followed. And she welcomes the presence of a third-party observer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think having more eyes that are not HCA eyes on the issue is better for our patients and better for our staff. A non-biased group who is just evaluating where the deficiencies are and how we can make them better, I feel like, are more likely to listen to our staff and not be so worried about the monetary cost of the changes that need to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mission has been under persistent scrutiny from state and federal regulators since September, when NCDHHS officials arrived to investigate a series of incidents<\/a>, including the deaths of two patients; they found that staff errors, communication breakdowns, and technological problems put patients\u2019 lives at risk<\/a>, and CMS placed the hospital in immediate jeopardy<\/a>.<\/p>\n CMS removed Mission from immediate jeopardy in November but told Lowe that the hospital remained out of compliance<\/a> with federal health and safety regulations. The agency cited deficiencies in patients\u2019 rights, nursing services and emergency services.<\/p>\n CMS gave Mission a Jan. 15 deadline to fix those problems or face the termination of its Medicare agreement. It\u2019s not clear whether those issues were resolved; an agency spokesperson this month declined multiple requests for an update on the matter, saying only that it was \u201cactively working to address circumstances\u201d at the hospital.<\/p>\n An NCDHHS spokesperson earlier this month confirmed the dates of regulators\u2019 visit but did not provide additional information. The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.<\/p>\n Mission was placed in immediate jeopardy<\/a> in 2024 after an NCDHHS inspection revealed 18 patients were harmed \u2014 including four who died \u2014 in 2022 and 2023 in connection to problems with the hospital\u2019s emergency and oncology services. The sanction was lifted after the hospital provided a plan of correction.<\/p>\n The hospital faced the same sanction in 2021<\/a>, after regulators found that it failed to properly care for a patient who had a history of drug use and was found dying on the floor of her room.<\/p>\n \u201cI will also note that pre-sale Mission did not struggle with the range and depth of problems that HCA has,\u201d Mayfield said Friday. \u201cI suggest that this is a direct result of HCA prioritizing process, speed, and profit over the most important priority: centering patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n Asheville Watchdog welcomes thoughtful reader comments on this story, which has been republished on\u00a0our Facebook page<\/a>. Please submit your comments there.<\/p>\n Asheville Watchdog<\/a>is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Jack Evans is an investigative reporter who previously worked at the Tampa Bay Times. You can reach him via email at jevans@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog\u2019s reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to\u00a0avlwatchdog.org\/support-our-publication\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the third time in less than two years, Mission Hospital faces sanctions that could result in it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-268505","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}