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Violations of Texas Administrative Code meet with fines from state health agency(Brownsville Herald (Texas) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Feb. 8--The Texas Department of State Health Services in the past two years assessed administrative penalties to a long list of facilities found to be in violation of laws regulating mammography and x-ray systems. Two hospitals in Brownsville are on the list. The state agency assessed an $8,000 penalty against Brownsville Doctors Hospital L.L.C. in July when it claimed the hospital failed to ensure that a test or phantom image was of sufficient quality and failing to stop performing mammograms when the test or phantom images were not of sufficient quality. The penalty was reduced to $2,000, TDSHS public records show. Everardo Rivera, director of the hospital's imaging center, said Friday that the hospital appealed the findings because quality assurance is provided on a daily basis and that a medical physicist had evaluated the equipment and that "everything was fine." "We had everything in line," Rivera said, adding that patients had not been affected and had not been placed in harm's way. "That's why (the penalty) was reduced," Rivera said. Valley Regional Medical Center was assessed a penalty of $4,000 in October 2007 for failing to cease clinical image processing with a processor when the analysis of quality control tests indicated the limits were exceeded, according to the TDSHS. The penalty was reduced to $1,000. The center's Director of Radiology Jerry Hatley said quality assurance tests are conducted routinely and that a company was called in for adjustments. "We didn't document what they did. It was not a quality issue. It was an issue of documentation," he added. Hatley also said that patients had not been affected. Not everyone found to be non-compliant is assessed penalties, however. In lieu of an administrative penalty of $9,000, the state directed the Medical Arts Hospital in Lamesa, Texas to provide 10 free mammograms to indigent patients within six months. The directive was made in August. Others received greater penalties, according to TDSHS records. In October 2007, the Hermann Breast Center in Houston was assessed $18,900 in penalties for failure to send the exam results to patients within 30 days from examination and to notify a patient within a reasonable time of the need for another examination. The penalty was reduced to $5,000. The state noted six violations for North Texas Imaging/Hampton Center II in Dallas, assessing it a $21,000 penalty in February 2008 that was reduced to $1,000. [email protected] To see more of The Brownsville Herald, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.brownsvilleherald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Brownsville Herald, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |