For the second time in three months, Duke University Hospital is under review by federal officials after an infant suffered an injury while undergoing a critical procedure Aug. 31 in the intensive care nursery.
The injury, the nature of which is currently undisclosed, is non life-threatening and the infant, who is no longer at Duke, has a favorable prognosis, DUH officials said in a statement released Thursday.
Investigators from the Division of Facility Services conducted a review of the hospital Sept. 5 and Sept. 8, following Duke's voluntary notification on Sept. 3 of the incident to both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, whom DFS represents, and the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the Herald-Sun of Durham reported.
The patient's identity is being withheld for confidentiality reasons, and Duke is working with DFS to ascertain the cause of the incident, according to a statement issued by William Fulkerson, chief executive officer of DUH, and Gail Shulby, director of accreditation and regulatory affairs.
"Safeguards have already been put in place," the statement reads.
CMS recently conducted a review of the hospital following the mismatched organ transplant of 17-year-old Jésica Santillán, who died in February. CMS found the hospital deficient in several areas and placed DUH in "immediate jeopardy" of losing participation rights in Medicare and Medicaid services. DUH also underwent further review after a June 2 incident in which another infant suffered first, second and third degree burns after a flash fire in the pediatric intensive care unit. CMS cleared DUH in late July.
DUH also underwent similar review from JCAHO in response to the Santillán tragedy. JCAHO downgraded the hospital's accreditation status from "Accreditation with Full Standards of Compliance" to "Accreditation with Requirements for Improvement" in March and found six problematic areas Duke needed to address. JCAHO conducted a follow-up survey June 20 and upgraded DUH's status back to full compliance.
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