HospitalInspections.org

Based on review of hospital documents and interviews with hospital staff, the hospital failed to specify the dates/times the hospital offered cardiothoracic surgery services to patients presenting to the emergency room/department (ED) and required those specialty services.

Findings:

1. The surveyors requested the hospital's specialty on-call list, for the period of January and February 2015 and July 2015 to present, of physicians available to the ED for examination/treatment of patients who required specialty services to stabilize the patient's emergency medical condition.

2. The on-call list, entitled "Emergency Department Call Schedule", did not contain dates when cardiothoracic surgery would be available.

3. The on-call list only contain the name of one physician and the notation of the surgeon's "Call partner".

4. When the surveyor asked about the surgeon's availability, the Quality Director and the ED Director stated the hospital did not have any specific dates/times the cardiothoracic surgeon would be on-call. The ED Director told the surveyor that ED staff would just call the surgeon and he would tell them if he was on call/accept the patient.