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May 8, 2004Center accepts NMH planMarch survey uncovered deficienciesByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has accepted Northern Michigan Hospital's plan to correct deficiencies found by federal and state surveyors in recent inspections. "We reviewed it, we approved it and we found it was a very good plan for adequately addressing the conditions that were found," said Bob Daly, manager of the CMS operations branch in Chicago that handles hospital survey issues in a six-state region that includes Michigan. After a state and federal survey of NMH last December found deficiencies in the hospital's infection-control practices, a larger review of other health care practices was conducted in March. The March survey uncovered deficiencies ranging from an employee's bottled water in a cooler used for patients' food to incomplete patient records, fire safety code violations, insufficient instrument sterilization equipment and procedures, and a lack of adequate follow-up on patient grievances. The hospital faced possible revocation of its right to receive Medicare reimbursement by July 11 if a plan to correct the cited deficiencies was not submitted, approved and implemented. NMH spokesman Thomas Spencer said officials were pleased the corrective action plan was accepted, and accepted quickly. "It is the outcome that we expected," he said. Surveyors from the state Department of Community Health will revisit the hospital to ensure the corrections are implemented. Spencer said many changes to correct deficiencies already have been made. Others will be in place before the hospital is again reviewed, he said. "We're very confident the re-survey will go as well as the corrective action acceptance did," Spencer said.
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