After being closed more than nine weeks because of patient health complications, DaVita Lufkin Dialysis will reopen for patient care Wednesday, a company spokesman confirmed Monday.
While the state has said the facility can reopen as early as Tuesday, DaVita company spokesman Michael Chee said the center will begin treating patients July 2.
Joel Andrews/The Lufkin Daily News |
DaVita Lufkin Dialysis received state approval to reopen, and will open its doors to patients on Wednesday, according to spokesmen from the Texas Department of State Health Services and DaVita. The center has been closed for more than nine weeks due to patient health complications.
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The facility at 700 S. John Redditt Drive closed April 28 after facility administrators contacted local police, state and health departments about a recent spike in patient deaths and health complications. The Texas Department of State Health Services conducted a regulatory investigation into the facility along with officials from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Details on their findings have not been made public.
In a separate investigation, Lufkin Police Department officers have charged former DaVita nurse Kimberly Clark Saenz, 34, of Pollok, with injecting two patients with bleach. While both patients survived, a DaVita spokesman has said the company suspects Saenz is linked to a cluster of four patient deaths in early April. Police have not filed any additional charges.
A spokesman for DSHS said the department has found DaVita's Lufkin location in compliance for reopening, adding that the state would not let any facility reopen that posed a threat to public health.
"We cannot issue a 100 percent guarantee of safety for any facility," said Doug McBride, DSHS press officer. "No one can, but our purpose is to do what we can to protect the public and we are not going to knowingly allow a facility to function that is a threat to public health."
The findings of a state survey conducted in mid-May were released Monday to The Lufkin Daily News through an open records request. The survey is 40 pages total with most of the information they contain blacked out, the state citing what it feels are exceptions to open records rules. Nothing is visible about what deficiencies were cited at the facility. Some portions of the corrective action plan portion of the survey were also blacked out.
The state has requested the Texas Attorney General's Office make a ruling on whether or not that withheld information is open to the public. Surveys typically contain a list of deficiencies or non-compliance cited by the state alongside a corrective plan of action, which is submitted by the facility and later approved by the state. Dialysis facilities are required to undergo a state review every three years during normal operating hours and must be found in compliance with those standards in order to receive reimbursement from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which makes up a large portion of their billing. The most recent survey followed the facility's closure, and was not a part of the federally required survey process.
The facility will not begin operating on Wednesday at full capacity, the state spokesman said, but will open in phases with a gradual buildup on the number of patients it serves. The facility will be closely monitored by the state for at least six months, McBride said. Written monthly reports will also be required.
"Generally speaking, any facility that has been inspected or investigated is more likely to be running in full compliance with the regulations," McBride said.
In accordance with a level three corrective plan of action — the highest kind of enforcement the state can apply — DaVita will be operating with a physician monitor, two nurse monitors and a technical monitor to oversee staff at the facility. The state has also required DaVita to mail and post notices of the findings of the May survey.
While DaVita will be operating with the same staff it did before the closure, DaVita has hired a new facility administrator to run the center, Chee said in a previous interview. Also, all staff have been put through additional re-education and training on the company's policy and procedure, he said.
The corrective plan submitted by DaVita and approved by the state indicated the company started a comprehensive mortality review from January 2007 to the present, according to the state survey. Further details on the facility's mortality rate were not specified in the version of the survey received by the newspaper. The number of patient deaths under review by the investigating departments has not been made public.
Upon reopening, the facility will initiate a "Safety Net" program which involves checks by nursing staff to "ensure correct dialysate, correct medications, correct blood flow rates and safety checks are utilized," stated the corrective portion of the survey.
The portion indicated DaVita would administer a patient satisfaction survey upon reopening. Patients will also be receiving education about their treatments and individualized care plans, the survey stated.
