Hospital Hit for ER Violations

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A suburban Philadelphia hospital has become the third in a month to be cited for requiring suicidal patients in an emergency room to wear distinctive scrubs.
Mercy Catholic Medical Center in Darby required patients in the emergency room with suicidal ideations to wear blue paper scrubs.
The requirement surfaced during a late January visit to the 188-bed facility by surveyors from the state Health Department.
A Mercy employee told the surveyor the paper scrubs were used to decrease the risk of strangulation by use of the ties on the scrubs. The surveyors also were told the distinctive scrubs made identification of suicidal patients easy.
The report states that use of the blue paper scrubs violates the privacy rights of the patients.
Previously the state cited the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center for placing patients deemed at risk for suicide to wear distinctive apparel. All three were inspected in January.
The inspection of the Mercy emergency room turned up other rules violations including a renovation project of three rooms for suicidal patients. According to the report the hospital undertook the renovation project and put the rooms into use without first getting state approval.
The report also cites a memo from hospital administrators to staff informing them that the hospital failed to meet the standards required by the City of Philadelphia to operate a Crisis Response Center.
"As a result," the memo states,"we have voluntarily relinquished our license to operate the CRC effective Nov. 5, 2019."
"We continue to fall short of necessary requirements to operate the center," the memo continues.
The hospital filed a plan of correction in which it promised to find new attire for suicidal patients and to file for formal approval of the renovation project.