Illinois Abortion Facility Inspection Update – Part 4

This the fourth of a continuing series of posts written by a friend of McHenry County Blog about Illinois Department of Public Health inspections of abortion clinics.

Forest View Medical Center, Des Plaines

On 6/1/11 a nursing survey was done. Several violations were found. They were mostly paperwork and related to the policy and procedure manual not reflecting the practice of the clinic.

A Rhogam dose for an Rh- woman having a medical abortion was not recorded in the Rhogam book, although it was given and recorded in her chart.

There was a dispute between the clinic and IDPH over whether an employee needed to have a background check.

There was a dispute between the clinic and IDPH over how many ultrasounds were needed in training the ultrasound tech  (the P&P manual was changed from 50 to 30 to reflect their practice).

No post-counseling notes were found.

The response of the clinic was to submit a form for post-counseling notes. They changed their P&P manual, and studied how to be certain that medical abortion patients would be included in the Rhogam book.

On 8/10/11 a Life Safety Survey was done. There were multiple violations found, but they were all corrected by 11/3/11. They included

The staff changing room was overfilled with bags of dirty linen (9-32 gal. bags).

Exit doors were not equipped for easy opening (they contained thumb screws).

Emergency lighting was missing or needed to be modified.

Fire drills needed documentation of the time of day they occurred, to show they took place at various times and conditions.

The Fire alarm system was not documented well and the circuit was not labeled in the electrical panel.

The Sprinkler system needed testing and a testing log.

While it looks like a lot, there were no huge or unusual problems here. The thumb latches were removed from the emergency doors. The linen pickup was increased to 2x/week. Memos were sent out. The fire alarm and sprinkler systems are now documented and understood. These things, again, show that frequent inspection is not burdensome and can work to save lives.

More tomorrow.


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