Deferred and deficient facility maintenance traditionally has plagued organizations that rely on taxpayer dollars to support their operations and activities. These facilities include public K-12 schools and government buildings. It is especially noteworthy when a private facility faces such problems, and when that facility is a hospital, the situation can become a crisis.
Two Washington lawmakers recently requested information from HCA Healthcare Inc., the nation’s biggest hospital company, about conditions and practices at its Bayonet Point Hospital in Hudson, Florida, following a report by NBC News in which insiders detailed extensive deficiencies at the facility.
The report relied on regulatory documents and interviews with four doctors at the facility, including George Giannakopoulos, a neurosurgeon who was its longtime chief of staff. Among the shortcomings described in the report were an increase in patient safety events at Bayonet Point, an anesthesiology department in disarray, run-down and dirty infrastructure, and cockroaches in an operating room.
The unsafe practices and conditions at the 290-bed acute care facility were a result of HCA putting profits over patient care, the doctors contended, a view HCA disputed in the report.
The lawmakers asked HCA to provide information related to eight questions. Among them: What is the hospital doing to address the allegations in the NBC News report, and how much of the hospital’s budget is devoted to patient safety? Rubio and Bilirakis also asked how HCA ensures it maintains appropriate staff-to-patient ratios.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor of the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
