Community Medical Center Passes CMS Inspection, No Longer at Risk of Losing Certification
Community Medical Center-Fresno passed its most recent inspection and no longer faces a revocation of Medicare certification, CMS announced last week, the Fresno Bee reports. CMC had faced loss of federal certification after a series of inspections beginning in September 2004 found problems that state and federal officials said could "substantially limit the hospital's capacity to render adequate care" and "adversely affect patient health and safety."
According to an Oct. 6 letter to CMC accompanying the hospital's June 27-29 inspection, released by CMS last week, "The California Department of Health Services has determined that Community Medical Center-Fresno now meets the Medicare conditions of participation for a provider of hospital service. Therefore, this office will not proceed with a termination action as stated" previously.
Ron Ho, acting manager of CMS' hospital and community care operations branch in San Francisco, said that CMC was cited in the June inspection for "standard-level problems" but that the problems were not severe enough to jeopardize Medicare certification.
CMC officials submitted a 17-page correction plan on the inspection report to CMS on Oct. 20, though they were not required to do so.
Tim Joslin, CEO of CMC, said immediate changes were made at the hospital to comply with federal regulations and changes also were made "to the organizational structure relative to quality, how quality is implemented and how that information is shared with the appropriate management and board (of directors)" (Correa, Fresno Bee, 11/5).