COVID-19 test order – Santa Clara County Hospital fined for failing to comply with NBC Bay Area

Santa Clara County has fined private health organizations more than 000 40,000 for failing to comply with its corona virus testing order.

He was fined $ 7,22,750 for failing to adequately report patients for the COVID-19 test to HCA Healthcare Regional Medical Center in San Jose.

An enforcement officer inspected the center on Oct. 20, noting that the hospital had not “publicly” issued Govt-19 test notices in 13 different rooms, according to the breach notice. The hospital failed to rectify the violation within the county’s 48-hour grace period, and the county fined Oct. 27.

In addition, the HCA’s Good Samaritan Hospital was fined 500 8,500 – 500 3,500 for insufficient notice to patients and $ 5,000 for failing to examine a patient who met the qualifications.

On Oct. 10, Good Samaritan Hospital used a registered county complaint portal, accusing him of refusing a diagnostic test. A COVID-19 patient is exposed in his or her workplace. The nurse was able to get a test through the county at the Santa Clara County Exhibition Grounds.

“We are pleased that this issue has been resolved and that all necessary areas are now showing signs,” said Sarah Sherwood, spokeswoman for HCA Healthcare.

County private adviser James Williams announced in September that he would impose fines on private health organizations for failing to provide adequate access to COVID-19 tests.

“Private providers lag significantly behind the county in the COVID-19 test they provide to patients,” district officials said. “Private health care systems are needed under the revised testing mandate to teach patients about their rights to the COVID-19 test.”

According to the county, private hospitals can do this through notices posted on their website, advertising materials and body parts. “Once patients are aware of their rights, providers continue to provide tests to all types of patients who fall under the revised test order, and we expect a significant increase in testing by providers,” district officials said.

The county said four violations of the county’s probation order were corrected within the grace period and thus no fines were imposed. District public health officials have strongly criticized private hospitals for not conducting adequate COVID-19 tests.

In September, David Campos, a former deputy district administrator, accused hospitals of not going to the county’s lower level to reopen businesses.

“The county is doing its part and we are testing more than our fair share,” Campos said at the time. “If these private health hospitals really tested the level we wanted to test, we would be in the orange (layer) today.”

The other two hospitals were fined for not giving adequate notice to patients. The county fined these centers for similar reasons – not showing enough signs at the facility declaring patients entitled to a Govt-19 test.

The county imposed fines of $ 8,250 against the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and San Jose centers for failing to provide adequate notice to patients. The county imposed a $ 3,750 fine against Kaiser Permanente’s San Jose Medical Center. The Palo Alto Medical Foundation did not respond to a request for comment.

Irene Chavez, manager of the San Jose Medical Center in Kaiser Permanent, said the company responded by placing signs on the center’s emergency room ambulance bays.

According to Chavez, Kaiser’s Northern California offices have recently doubled their daily testing capacity to more than 12,000 tests a day since purchasing new laboratory equipment and facilities.

Hospitals in Santa Clara County have conducted a greater number of COVID-19 tests than private health organizations, according to a November 10 report by the county’s Department of Public Health to the Board of Supervisors.

Between Nov. 2 and Nov. 8, the county conducted 18,402 trials, and Kaiser Fermanande of Northern California conducted 9,370 trials. Stanford Healthcare Hospital conducted 5,416 tests, the Sutter Health and Palo Alto Medical Foundation 1,928 tests, and El Camino Health 1,245 tests.

Dr Christina Kong, director of pathology at Stanford Medicine, said she had not received any news from the county that the healthcare provider should increase its COVID-19 testing.

Stanford Health is currently waiting to provide home self-collection tools for FDA approval, which will be tested at their clinical virology lab.

Dr. George Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said extensive testing is important to inform public health officials about how the virus is spread so they can advise on best practices and issue adequate health orders.

Individuals who test positive for the virus may be isolated to prevent the spread of the disease to others.

“We use testing in a variety of ways,” Benjamin said. “If we do random tests and we see a large number of people in the community with a specific disease, we can instruct those individuals to be tested and to avoid dangerous activities.”

The story was first published by San Jose Spotlight and written and published by Sonia Herrera. Use the original link when sharing: https://sanjosespotlight.com/santa-clara-county-fines-hospital-for-failing-to-comply-with-covid-19-testing-order/