Parkland Memorial Hospital’s make-or-break survey is underway

The critical government survey that will determine whether Dallas County’s public hospital retains its state and federal funding is currently underway. The surveyors arrived — unannounced — Monday and began combing through Parkland Memorial Hospital, looking for signs of patient-safety problems that were detected in 2011. The county hospital has been operating under federal oversight for more than a year as it retrained its staff of 9,000 and made other significant changes in patient operations.

Hospital spokesman Mike Malaise confirmed Tuesday that the inspectors had arrived. The visit will determine the fate of more than $400 million in annual government funding that Parkland currently receives.

The survey was expected to occur before Aug. 31, although the starting date was not known.

The inspection team, which is working on behalf of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, includes 14 surveyors. Three additional life-safety experts are checking to be certain all hospital exits, entrances and hallways are clear.

“They have told us they will be here 24/7 until the survey is complete,” Malaise said of the survey team.

After failing a series of inspections in 2011, Parkland was forced to make changes in nearly 500 areas of the countywide public health system. They included revamping the hospital’s nursing department, upgrading the staff in the busy emergency room and psychiatric services department, assuring physician oversight of doctors in training and improving better infection control, including a crackdown on basic hand-washing procedures by staffers.

As of April, the county facility had completed 97 percent of the mandated corrective-action plan, said officials overseeing the upgrades. The changes have cost the county hospital an estimated $75 million.

In recent months, Parkland officials have confirmed that the staff was ready for the critical review and the hospital’s top leaders have vowed that it would pass it.

Throughout the 14-month rehabilitation process, many of Parkland’s top leaders resigned and were replaced on an interim basis. The hospital has been operating without a permanent chief operating officer since December, 2011, when Dr. Ron Anderson stepped down after 29 years as CEO.

The survey’s results will be known sometime this summer.

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Source: The Scoop Blog (Jacobson, 6/18)