Date: February 25, 2008

Broughton Says It is Ready for Inspection

Morganton – Broughton Hospital Director Dr. Art Robarge today said that the hospital is ready for federal inspectors to return. He said hospital staff have accomplished a great deal in the past few months, ensuring that the hospital is meeting federal standards that will allow it to bill Medicare and Medicaid for services.

In a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Dr. Robarge said the hospital staff had worked “diligently” on a corrective action plan that was required after it failed an August inspection of the facility.  Because the hospital is so vitally important to the region, in his letter Dr. Robarge asked federal inspectors to re-inspect the facility as quickly as possible.

Dr. Robarge said that the hospital has made significant improvements in a number of areas, including:

• Worked to reduce the use of emergency restrictive interventions and to ensure that any restraints are done safely.
• Reorganized staff to ensure clinical supervision of all clinical staff.
• Created new policies and additional education on prevention of falls.
• Created an interdisciplinary atmosphere where the entire staff is working together to address a patient’s needs.
• Realigned existing nurses and brought in additional nurses through contracts to increase the number of nurses operating on the wards.
• Improved infection control policies.

In August, CMS denied Medicare and Medicaid funding for Broughton patients. The denial stems from a February 2007 incident in which a patient died while at Broughton. CMS had ordered Broughton to devise a corrective action plan to avoid similar incidents. When CMS inspectors went to Broughton to check out that plan, they found another patient incident that led them to recommend denial of Medicare and Medicaid funding.