Doctors and healthcare providers have a duty to protect the safety of their patients and staff members and when they fail to meet those duties and injuries are incurred, that facility can be held liable for damages. In a case that has many Pennsylvania families taking notice and wondering just what a hospital is required to do to report cases of suspected sexual abuse or assault. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, the Carlisle Regional Medical Center failed to report three separate cases of possible sexual abuse or assault to the authorities.
What is most perplexing is that two of the cases allegedly involve children under the age of five years old. The hospital is disputing the health department's findings, stating one of the cases was reported and in another case a doctor did not find any evidence of abuse. The third case apparently involved a 17-year-old patient whose parent claimed the child was a victim of rape and assault. After being told there was no staff on hand who handled such cases, the patient was referred to another hospital and the incident was not documented or reported to outside authorities.
The CEO of the hospital said the incidences could be attributed to "documentation errors" and the hospital has since established a plan to prevent similar cases from occurring in the future. The implication here is that the hospital did not do all that it is legally required to do in order to protect its patients. If one of these patients is subjected to further abuse or assault one wonders if the hospital can be held liable for injuries that result from its negligence in not reporting prior suspected abuse as required by law.
The Department of Health's report, which recently became public, was the result of undisclosed investigation by the DOH. Apparently these incidents are just the latest reports by the DOH criticizing the hospital's services. One prior complaint included exceptionally long waits in the hospital's emergency room. According to the hospital's CEO, those complaints resulted in a variety of changes at the hospital including new directors for the emergency department and a new chief nursing officer.
Source: The Patriot-News, "Carlisle Regional Medical Center failed to report possible cases of sexual abuse and assault, Pennsylvania Department of Health says," David Wenner, Aug. 08, 2012
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