An Anaheim hospital that treats a large share of poor patients in the region has been slapped with dozens of citations by two independent sets of regulators for inadequate staffing and poor medical care.
The findings have placed the hospital's public and private funding at risk. Although the hospital is not expected to close down and is currently appealing the decisions, it must correct the extensive problems that regulators found to ensure that it remains open.
The unusually harsh rebukes preceded by several months a lawsuit filed Wednesday against the owner of Anaheim General Hospital, Tustin-based Pacific Health Corp.
Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo filed the suit contending that the company and two of its hospitals -- but not Anaheim General -- were part of a "scheme to defraud the Medi-Cal and Medicare programs out of millions of dollars."
The findings by regulators and the lawsuit come as the company also wages a fight to buy Anaheim Memorial Medical Center, a larger hospital six miles across town. California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, who has to approve the sale, is expected to announce a decision this month.
Pacific Health issued a statement Wednesday saying it has been cooperating with authorities and it believes that it will be cleared of any illegal actions.
President Jim Young, asked previously about the Anaheim General findings by regulators, said the hospital had corrected all the issues that regulators had cited. The hospital's "current state is excellent," he said.
According to one report by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Anaheim General put patients "at immediate jeopardy" by not having life-saving medications available, having insufficient food and water for patients in the event of an emergency and failing to ensure the safety of its psychiatric patients. The hospital said it corrected those problems as soon as they were discovered.
The report also found that the hospital kept too low a number of nurses on staff and failed to maintain adequate levels of doctors available on site at all times.
Both reports came after regulators made surprise visits in February and March.
The Medicare report singled out two patient deaths early this year that the agency said might have been linked to inadequate patient care. In addition, it highlighted a third death that occurred after a patient in renal failure did not receive adequate dialysis treatment for more than 16 hours.
