Texas General Hospital recently lost its ability to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid system. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Grand Prairie hospital failed to meet minimum health and safety standards.
Between May and August, auditors conducted a series of inspections at the hospital. The inspectors found patients’ health was continually being put at risk due to the unsafe conditions at Texas General.
The dangerous conditions included:
- A stroke patient was not given a CT scan because no one there could read a scan.
- There was a chronic shortage of nurses. This led to no inpatient nurses being available to admit patients from the emergency department.
- Paramedics performed nursing services like installing a peripheral IV, performing defibrillation and pacing, triaging patients and placing patients in restraints.
- No respiratory or radiology services were offered. All those trained to perform these services resigned when the hospital did not pay them.
- The hospital’s IV tubing had expired, so staff could not use this equipment safely.
Patients that wanted to report the conditions at the hospital were routinely given the wrong phone numbers by hospital staff.
In 2016, Texas General reported a $13.9 million loss on net patient revenue. The same year, the hospital made headlines for charging the most over cost for medical services in Texas.
The termination of the Medicare and Medicaid agreement means the programs will not provide payments to the hospital for any services rendered to patients that use the programs.
