By Andrew R. Jones
State inspectors have returned to Mission Hospital for the second time in four months following complaints from nurses and a coalition of doctors, patient advocates and elected officials about recent deaths they say could have been prevented with better staffing and better telemonitoring procedures.
“NCDHHS-DHSR staff are on-site at Mission Hospital,” North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Hannah Jones told Asheville Watchdog in an email Monday afternoon. “We cannot comment on possible or ongoing investigations.”
Mission spokesperson Nancy Lindell did not respond to the Watchdog’s request for comment about the inspection.
Reclaim Healthcare WNC, the coalition calling for Nashville-based HCA Healthcare to drastically improve patient care at Mission or end its ownership of the hospital system, held a news conference earlier in the day where it said hospital staff believed that some recent deaths at the hospital were preventable.
Without providing detail, Reclaim said some of the deaths involved problems with telemetry monitoring. (Patients requiring telemetry have their cardiac rhythms and other vital signs monitored in real time by technicians who are off-site.)
Several Buncombe County commissioners, Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer, and two Democratic state representatives stood behind Sen. Julie Mayfield (D-Buncombe) as she shared testimonies over the past two months from unidentified nurses, doctors and patients.
“Over the past two months, multiple sources inside the hospital have reported deaths that they believe were preventable tied to breakdowns in Mission’s telemonitoring systems,” said Mayfield, a Reclaim co-founder and leader. “At least one of these cases involved short staffing directly, and staffing pressures…. . I have submitted these cases to state and federal regulators, and I have spoken personally with DHHS Secretary Dev Sangvai, and implored him to return investigators to Mission immediately.”
Lindell, responding to the Reclaim news conference, called Mayfield’s statements misleading.
“As the Senator and this group well know, surveys conducted by multiple government agencies in response to her prior complaints were not substantiated. It’s disappointing that she is continuing to mislead members of the community with false information,” Lindell said. “Hospitals are a place for healing and her desire to criticize and tear down our caregivers at every turn does not serve this community and only hurts our efforts to recruit nurses.”
Mayfield, speaking by phone after the news conference, said she did not know NCDHHS would be returning to the hospital Monday.
“I am elated that they are here,” she said. “I hope they’re able to identify problems and fix them.”
Some nurses received a message from the hospital system Monday, alerting them to the visit and advising them to prepare accordingly.
“This is an urgent message from Mission Hospital Facility alert,” said the alert, which came from a Nashville number around 1 p.m. “Surveyors have arrived at the hospital from the Department of Health and Human Services. Please make sure your areas are survey ready.”
Mission Health announced to staff last month that it plans to hire 200 employees in 100 days, half of them nurses, beginning Sept. 22. But Mayfield and Reclaim member Mike Messino, a retired oncologist, said at the news conference that they were skeptical of the plan.
“We would applaud HCA if they would do this,” Messino said. “Regardless of how many new hires HCA makes, we know nurses and staff will continue to leave.”
In May, NCDHHS inspectors visited the hospital and examined dozens of complaints and issues, including the death of a patient in February after his call for help from a Mission Hospital emergency department bathroom went 29 minutes before a staff member responded to him.
The U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services had determined the hospital had violated federal emergency care regulations. But because Mission discovered the violation — before the unannounced May inspection by NCDHHS — and took “corrective action,” CMS chose not to terminate the hospital’s Medicare agreement, according to a July 15 letter to the hospital’s chief executive, Greg Lowe.
NCDHHS ultimately concluded there were no deficiencies in care.
Nurses have told The Watchdog they have filed multiple complaints to the state since that inspection.
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Asheville Watchdog is a nonprofit news team producing stories that matter to Asheville and Buncombe County. Andrew R. Jones is a Watchdog investigative reporter. Email arjones@avlwatchdog.org. The Watchdog’s local reporting is made possible by donations from the community. To show your support for this vital public service go to avlwatchdog.org/support-our-publication/.
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