Mount Sinai Hospital Cited for Inadequate Staffing
March 12, 2002
The New York Health Department revealed today that inadequate staffing at Mount Sinai Hospital contributed to the death of a fifty-seven-year-old man. When Mike Hurewitz died on January 13, three days after donating part of his liver to his ailing brother, officials with the state health commissioner's office opened an investigation into the hospital's transplant procedures. During the week of Hurewitz's death, health officials discovered that a resident was left in charge of nearly thirty-five transplant patients, including Hurewitz. State Health Commissioner Antonia Novello said leaving care of the hospital's transplant patients to an "inadequately supervised and overburdened" resident contributed to the man's death. Mount Sinai also had a shortage of nurses on the unit.
Novello has suspended Mount Sinai's live-patient partial liver donations for an additional six months. A full investigation into the hospital's pediatric liver transplant program will also be conducted. Novello said she would push for the maximum fine of $48,000. Over 100 live donor operations have taken place at Mount Sinai since 1998. It is estimated that the hospital uses living donors for liver surgeries more than any other facility in the country.
-- Article Courtesy of InjuryBoard.com
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