'60 Minutes' piece featuring CRMC to air Sunday
Nov 30, 2012 (Menafn - The Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --The clock is finally ticking.
On Sunday, the CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" will air its story on Carlisle Regional Medical Center and its parent company, Health Management Associates.
The piece, which The Sentinel first reported on in July, will be titled "The Cost of Admission" and will investigate allegations from doctors that HMA pressured them to admit patients regardless of their medical needs.
While the story largely focuses on HMA, a CBS official told The Sentinel that what the program found "in Carlisle will blow you away."
Hospital spokeswoman Tara Mead on Friday referred inquires to corporate officials.
However, in a conference call with investors Friday morning, HMA officials warned investors of the impending piece and argued against the focus points of questions from the reporters and producers.
In the call, HMA noted that it does not know what the piece will be about, but from questions it received and questions officials were asked for the piece, they gathered that there would be focus on admission rates at HMA's hospitals, including CRMC.
The company received notification at 5:30 p.m. Thursday of the piece's air date, scheduled for 7 p.m. Sunday. The executive editor at "60 Minutes" called HMA to let the company know about the broadcast.
Levine speaks
Alan Levine, senior vice president and the president of the Florida Group, which is responsible for HMA's Florida operations, was interviewed on camera by "60 Minutes" and addressed the investors on the call.
He took care to note that 41 of its then 65 hospitals were named top performers in the country by The Joint Commission in 2011.
He also argued that while there were questions about admission percentages in the emergency departments, the rates at HMA hospitals have been steady.
"Admission rates remained consistent and in line with industry norms," Levine said. "There were no upward trends, spikes or jumps."
Levine explained that the numbers came from a third-party study that HMA hired to do an internal investigation upon hearing about "60 Minutes" committing to a story.
In charts HMA posted on its website, the emergency department inpatient admission percentage in January 2008 was 13.3 percent, and while there were minor fluctuations between 2008 and July 2011, the overall rate went back to 13.3 percent in 2011.
However, in both the conference call and the data on the website, HMA specifically mentioned data from CRMC.
August increase
Levine admitted that admission rates did increase at CRMC in August 2011.
However, he said the increase had to do with additions CRMC had made from 2009-2011, including adding a new cancer program and recruiting 40 new doctors, though he didn't specify where those doctors were placed and if they were replacing other physicians who had left.
A former emergency-department physician at CRMC, who was interviewed by "60 Minutes," claimed that 90 percent of physicians and physicians' assistants in the emergency department left the hospital in 2010.
CRMC has denied that.
Levine said it was the growth in those areas that led to the sudden increase of inpatient admissions in August 2011.
"Our staff wasn't prepared for that," he said.
In the data on the website, which was based on only Medicare patients who were admitted into the emergency department, there was an increase in one-day stay rates at CRMC.
The one-day-stay rates from 2007 had been on the decline, with 6.9 percent in 2007, 6.7 percent in 2008, 6.6 percent in 2009 and 6.5 percent in 2010. However, the hospital saw a 7.3 percent one-day stay rate in 2011. HMA listed comparable numbers nationally (in "other urban" areas) and statewide.
The national rate climbed from 10.8 to 10.9 percent in 2011, and the state rate fell from 8.1 to 7.9 percent in 2011, based on the information provided by the HMA-hired third-party organization.
There were also statistics on inpatient admission rates in the emergency department for Medicare patients who went to the department. In those, the admission rates were climbing. The inpatient-admission rates for Carlisle Regional Medical Center were 36.5 percent in 2007, 34.4 percent in 2008, 39.0 percent in 2009 and 40.7 percent in 2010. There was no data listed for 2011.
Levine explained that HMA keeps track of admission percentages to project staffing for the emergency department, which he said also explains why there wasn't enough staffing for a sudden influx of admitted inpatients. The Carlisle facility was cited by the state Department of Health for the type of care it gave to patients in 2011.
Supporting staff
However, Levine stood by the hospital and its staff.
"We're pretty darn proud of what's going on in Carlisle," he said. "We're proud of our employees there."
The hospital has been dogged by repeated violations cited by the state Department of Health.
The facility was fined 80,000 earlier this year after the health department determined it was out of compliance.
Also, the hospital allegedly failed to report three of its 16 cases of suspected sexual abuse that was presented, according to the health department.
The hospital disputed those findings, which involved a 3-year-old, a 4-year-old and a 17-year-old.
In a Sept. 25 health inspection, which was the result of an occupancy survey, the health department determined that the Carlisle facility was in compliance with "all applicable requirements of the Pennsylvania Department of Health's Rules and Regulations for Hospitals ..."
In September, the hospital released a 4-minute, 13-second video titled, "CRMC Community Benefit Report ... ," in which hospital CEO John Kristel, board member Grace D'Alo, and others, spoke passionately of the 100-year-old hospital's commitment to its patients.
"We are not just a part of the community, we are the community," Dr. Scott Miekley, the hospital's emergency room chief, said in the video. "I would put our hospital up against any in the country."
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Posted earlier on Cumberlink:
Carlisle Regional Medical Center will be featured on the CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" Sunday at 7 p.m.
The piece, which The Sentinel first wrote about in July, will be titled "The Cost of Admission" and will investigate allegations from doctors that CRMC parent Health Management Associates, pressured them to admit patients regardless of their medical needs.
While the story largely focuses on HMA, a CBS official told The Sentinel that what the program found "in Carlisle will blow you away."
For more on this story, check back to Cumberlink.com and read The Sentinel's online and print edition on Saturday.
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