Brotman Medical Center in Culver City, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center in Boyle Heights, Torrance Memorial Medical Center and Riverside Community Hospital were each fined $50,000.
According to the CDPH, Brotman Medical Center failed to follow its policies and procedures for fall prevention, resulting in a patient's death. An 82-year-old man who had suffered a stroke fell and hit his head, and later died.
L.A. County USC was fined after a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist put a man under general anesthesia without consultation by the supervising physician. That patient suffered neurological damage.
Torrance Memorial Medical Center was fined after a small bottle of laparoscopic defogging solution was found inside a patient who had undergone laparoscopic surgery. The hospital had failed to account for the missing bottle following the operation, and it was found in a subsequent surgical procedure, according to the CDPH.
Riverside Community Hospital was fined for "failing to ensure the health and safety of a patient when it did not follow its surgical policies and procedures," according to the state. A 14-centimeter metal clamp was not detected or removed from a patient's abdomen during an operation.
Fines were also issued to facilities in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Solano and Stanislaus counties.
City News Service contributed to this report.
