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OCHSNER CLINIC FOUNDATION 1516 JEFFERSON HWY NEW ORLEANS, LA 70121 Aug. 10, 2017
VIOLATION: PATIENT RIGHTS: FREE FROM ABUSE/HARASSMENT Tag No: A0145
Based on record review and interview, the hospital failed to ensure a patient's grievance intake incident was investigated as an abuse/neglect allegation and reported in compliance with applicable local, State, and Federal Laws and Regulations. This deficient practice was evidenced by the hospital's failure to recognize and investigate 1 of 1 (Patient #3) patient's grievance as an allegation of abuse/neglect and failed to report the incident within 24 hours to the Louisiana Department of Health.

Findings:
A review of the hospital policy titled "Adult/Elder Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation and/or Extortion" as provided by S1AsstVP/QI, revealed in part: The purpose of this policy is to set forth guidelines for identification of adult abuse criteria, recommendations for applying the criteria, and proper reporting procedures to comply with Louisiana Statute. Compliance with La. R.S. 14:403.2 requires reporting of suspected abuse/neglect/exploitation/extortion to report any incidence to the LDH (Louisiana Department of Health) if the primary recipient of the information leads them to suspect adult abuse, neglect, exploitation, or extortion.

Patient #3
A review of the Intake entered by S3PR/Spec from Patient #3 on 05/08/17 revealed in part: The patient alleged that she was assaulted by security and that the ED (Emergency Department) staff orchestrated everything on her ED visit on 03/10/17. She added that she was assaulted after she was held in the ED for 2 hours. She alleged that the hospital's body guard threaten her with bodily harm and that the hospital paid detail officers to come out and "do dirty work under the table". The review of the Intake revealed the Intake was routed to S4PR/Sup for investigation as a patient grievance.

In an interview on 08/09/17 at 11:30 a.m. with S4PR/Sup she indicated that it is the usual for patients to call PR (Patient Relations) when they have complaints and/or grievances to report. S4PR/Sup indicated that Patient #3's Intake was routed to her for investigation from S3PR/Spec. She indicated that in the patient's Intake information she thought the patient was referring to the law enforcement police officers, who were called by the patient on 03/10/17, and not the hospital's security officers or hospital staff. S4PR/Sup indicated that the patient's grievance was investigated, according to the hospital's grievance policy, as a grievance and the grievance investigation was not given a higher level as an abuse/neglect allegation at that time.

In an interview on 08/10/17 at 11:30 a.m. with S5PR/Mgr she indicated that she was the manager for the Patient Relations Department. S5PR/Mgr indicated that she did not routinely review patient Intake information from her PR staff. After S5PR/Mgr reviewed Patient #3's Intake, she indicated that she probably would have had questions and may have given the patient Intake a higher level and routed it to S2DirPI (Performance Improvement) for investigation as an alleged abuse/neglect allegation.

In an interview on 08/10/17 at 10:00 a.m. with S2DirPI she indicated that she was the Director of PI (Performance Improvement). S2DirPI indicated that Patient #3's Intake was not routed to her for review at the time it was reported by the patient on 05/08/17. She indicated that S4PR/Sup had verbally reviewed the Intake information with her and S4PR/Sup reported to her (S2DirPI) that the grievance involved law enforcement officers called by the patient on 03/10/17. S2DirPI indicated that she reviewed Patient #3's Intake today and indicated that if she had read the Intake at the time it was reported on 05/08/17 that she would have given it a higher level and investigated it as an alleged abuse/neglect allegation, involving security and hospital staff as well, and reported it to LDH as required.

In an interview on 08/10/17 at 10:30 a.m. with S1AsstVP/QI she indicated that after reviewing Patient #3's Intake Report from PR that it should have been investigated as an alleged abuse/neglect allegation and reported to LDH.