Machias hospital disciplined
Down East Community Hospital in Machias has been sanctioned by federal and state agencies for violations related to the death of a patient in 2008.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services has ordered the hospital to operate on a conditional state license, and the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has threatened to sever ties between the hospital and Medicare, the Bangor Daily News reported. Both measures are related to complaint investigations that arose following the death of Reid Emery in January 2008. Emery was a former patient who checked out of the hospital against doctors' advice and was found dead in a snowbank the next day from hypothermia and accidental drug overdose. The violations include conditions that allowed hospital employees to steal prescription medications, stolen patient files that washed up in a nearby waterway, improper procedures involving patient sedation and failure of hospital administrators and trustees to meet quality indicators, the paper reported.
The state's conditional license is good for one year, at which point the hospital can reapply for a full license. The hospital can maintain its relationship with Medicare by correcting the deficiencies within a certain timeframe.
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