The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid in May cited GMH for numerous LSC violations, including about 30 doors that didn’t meet standards.
In July, CMS threatened to strip GMH of its Medicare Provider Certification, but granted a temporary waiver in August until Dec. 30.
Although there were some issues along the way with the vendor and shipment of the doors to GMH, Rey Vega, interim administrator, said the hospital administration was able to get the vendor to agree to air freight the doors instead of having them shipped.
This announcement was made during a board meeting in November when the GMHA Board of Trustees raised concerns about the timing of the arrivals of the doors.
Vega said the doors arrived earlier this month and installation was completed late last week. He also said the expedited process was at no cost to the hospital.
To ensure patient services were not disrupted, Vega said GMH instituted interim life safety measures.
The next step is for GMHA to send a letter to CMS notifying them of the corrections they’ve made to address the LSC violations, Vega said, adding the decision to do a follow-up survey to ensure compliance will be made with CMS.
CMS may wait to conduct its follow-up survey during their next scheduled visit, Vega said, adding CMS makes at least one scheduled visit to GMH annually.
GMH is also expecting to meet another “deadline” with the Joint Commission, which cited GMH for a number of deficiencies from an unannounced survey it made in September.
On Dec. 7, the Joint Commission downgraded GMH’s accreditation status from Full Accreditation to “Accreditation With Follow-Up Survey.”
The Joint Commission follow-up survey is expected within two months of GMH being notified of the accreditation downgrade, Vega said.
