Mills-Peninsula Medical Center Fined $50,000 by CDPH

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame on Thursday was one of 12 California hospitals assessed an administrative penalty by the California Department of Public Health.  The penalty for Mills-Peninsula is $50,000; other state hospital fines range from $25,000 to $75,000.  Mills-Peninsula was the only hospital in San Mateo County cited.

According to the CDPH, the 12 penalties were levied after it was determined "the facilities' noncompliance with licensing requirements caused, or was likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients," according to a press release issued Thursday.

In the case of Mills, the CDPH release goes on to state "The hospital failed to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow its surgical policies and procedures."

Mills-Peninsula Chief Operating Officer Delores Gomez rebutted the claim, and says the hospital will be appealing the citation.

An examination of provided CDPH documentation suggests the specific incident for which Mills was fined occurred on December 14, 2009, when a patient underwent glaucoma surgery. Nine days later, the patient complained of discomfort in the eye and returned to the medical center. Upon examination, a physician found a small piece of sponge extruded from under the thin membrane that covers the white surface of the eyeball. The patient was taken back into surgery that same day, where the surgeon removed a "retained cellulose sponge foreign body" from the right eye.  The penalty Mills faces results from a failure to implement its own procedure to do "sponge counts."

According to Gomez, "Mills-Peninsula Health Services believes that CDPH is mistaken in considering the microfiber to be a “retained foreign object” and will be appealing the citation." Gomez goes on to say there was no permanent injury to the patient.

Mills, and the surgeon involved, have now placed into effect new procedures, according to the CDPH information, including using smaller sponges that have a string attached and using suction or aspiration to remove sponges at the end of a surgical procedure. Mills acted quickly, implementing specific sponge count procedures for all eye surgeries by January 8, 2010.

Gomez goes on to point out, "While any error involving patients warrants our full attention, it also should be noted that of the thousands of procedures performed at Mills-Peninsula each year, this is the first administrative penalty received by Mills-Peninsula Health Services for a retained object."

Three other Bay Area hospitals, Kaiser Foundation in San Francisco, Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, and Contra Costa Regional Medical Center in Martinez, received similar $50,000 penalties. It was the second fine for Dominican.

Seven of the other hospitals cited today are located in Southern California. The 12th is in Stanislaus County.