Last September, CMS threatened to terminate Dillingham, Alaska-based Kanakanak Hospital's Medicare contract for pharmacy deficiencies. After a plan of correction, the hospital has retained funding, according to Alaska Public Radio.
Pharmacy problems that led to the termination threat included missing medication labels, unsystematic labeling of medication and staff incompetence.
The report following the September investigation detailed several instances of patients' safety being jeopardized, including one in which a patient went into anaphylactic shock after an incorrectly filled medication was administered. A nurse told CMS regulators that the medication had been pulled from the automated dispensing system under an erroneous name several times. Another time, the pharmacy delivered morphine at a dosage five times greater than the physician prescribed.
The hospital implemented a plan of correction that included hiring and retraining pharmacy staff. After the CMS follow-up survey, the agency said that the hospital met the Jan. 11 deadline to bring the pharmacy into compliance with federal standards.
"I want to thank everyone involved for their commitment and dedication to improvement that was required over the past several weeks to ensure we made the necessary improvements in pharmacy services which will allow us to continue providing safe pharmaceutical care services to the people of our region," said Robert Clark, CEO of the hospital's operator, Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation.