Edhat Staff
By the edhat staff
In a move to ensure the safety and quality of care for chronically ill children, a prominent unit at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital has been temporarily barred from accepting new patients, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The California Department of Health Care Services took this action after finding that the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit did not meet the standards set by the California Children’s Services (CCS) program. The program caters to patients up to the age of 21 with chronic conditions, such as cancer, heart disease, cerebral palsy, traumatic injuries, and hemophilia.
The CCS program makes up about 1/5 of patients in its pediatric intensive care unit. All other pediatric patients not in this program are able to be accepted by the hospital.
State regulators identified several concerns, with staffing being a crucial issue. Insufficient critical care physicians and an overloaded medical director performing administrative duties were deemed to create an unsafe working environment.
The report also revealed critical care physicians stated they were prevented from transferring patients to other facilities for necessary care or faced “disciplinary actions” if this was done.
The California Department of Health Care Services indicated that the pediatric intensive care unit operated outside program standards, had inadequate policies and procedures, and lacked problem-solving protocols to prevent future issues, states the LA Times.
In response, Cottage Hospital submitted a plan in July to address these concerns. The plan is currently under review.
Until the state is assured that corrective measures will be implemented, new admissions to the pediatric intensive care unit for patients enrolled in the CCS program will remain restricted.
In a statement to the LA Times, a Cottage representative stated they were working to implement the state recommendations so that they can reopen the unit to new patients in the CCS program.
While Cottage Hospital defended their performance and contradicted specific findings in the report, such as limitations on transferring patients.
Notably, this is the second instance this year where the state has taken action to restrict admissions to a pediatric intensive care unit. Previously, John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek faced similar restrictions following investigations into patient deaths.
Despite the restrictions, hospital authorities emphasized their track record of delivering quality care, boasting zero patient harm events in the pediatric ICU since January 2022 and consistently high patient satisfaction ratings. They maintained that the state’s findings were not indicative of patient outcomes and reiterated their commitment to the program’s strength and ability to provide essential services.
Read the full LA Times article here.
[Ed Note: At Cottage Health’s request, this article and social media posts have been updated to clarify that only patients in the California Children’s Services (CCS) program are affected by the state’s mandate.]
There are a lot of caring and skilled doctors/nurses/etc at Cottage Hospital. However, the administration is continuously proving to a failure where it matters most, following the laws and patient-centered care. Admins are only focused on growth and money. Ron Werft has been there too long, he needs to retire to make the way for someone with a stronger moral compass to serve the needs of this small community.
The last few news articles of them can be summed up as the following:
Feds- “Hey cottage, you’re intentionally billing medi-cal to make more money and that violates our laws so we’re going to sue you.
Cottage – “We did nothing wrong! How dare you! We’re going to pay the settlement though.”
State- “Cottage um… we have these guidelines to ensure like, you know, no one dies due to your negligence and you’re not even meeting those in this department.”
Cottage- “How dare you! We are doing amazing!”
State – “Well your doctors are saying the opposite.”
Cottage – “They’re liars! You’re a liar! Give us the names of those doctors, we promise they’ll be fine.”
Their PR responses are nightmarish. Very Trumpian.
I want to say, my grown kids, received wonderful care from Cottage.
However, after working for 10 years, in a hospital, outside of New York, before moving here, I am sad to see how things have developed.
I did administrative, fundraising, for a pediatric, cancer wing.
Once built, we hired a Hospitalist, to tie everything together.
Basically, a pediatric Doctor, to help doctors, staff, families, even clergy.
I think it was a 2 year position…paid by the hospital…but well worth it.
Cottage has extended its neck way too far in many ways. Peds residency? Level 1 trauma center? Radiology residency program? They are biting off more than that can chew.
Our grandson was very sick in the Cottage PICU earlier this year, and received great care from all of the staff. The nurses were very informative and compassionate. They saved his life. It wound have been a great hardship to our family if he had to be transferred to a hospital out of the area.
There are plenty of stories of hits and misses at Cottage. Too many misses = a big problem. In medicine it doesn’t take much, and it shouldn’t, to get you red flagged. It’s not baseball, where you can bat .400 and get into the hall of fame. It’s more like .999 in medicine.
The NICU needs some lookin into as well! They killed my daughter and tried to cover it up, knowing she was going to die and looking us in the eye and giving us a smile!
They have a very nice place and all the tools they need to be a great place but they don’t have a bullpen of good pitchers or anybody that can hit the ball over the fence!
They screwed up big time in my situation and tried to cover it up doing things they should have been asking us permission to do ! And not even telling us what they were up too!
Devistating!
Not to mention they almost took my wife out too! With a very bad infection! I’ll just stop at that I’ve got nothing good to say about anything cottage except BEWARE!
I’m so sorry; I hope you got to the bottom of what they did.
I had an evil nurse who left me and didn’t come back; my son was in great distress; unbeknownst to us, he had to be resuscitated twice and then induced into a coma for a week. A doctor I hadn’t met poked her head in the door and told us he was very I’ll and might die, then left. Fortunately he survived. I regret not filing a complaint about the nurse but it was a very emotional time.
I am very sorry about your daughter, Diablo.