Hospice facility ordered to hire consultant, fined

HARTFORD, Conn. – The state has fined an Orange hospice facility $2,500 and ordered it to bring in an independent nurse consultant after inspections at the facility last year uncovered nearly two dozen violations.

Compassus – Greater Connecticut entered into a consent order with the state Department of Public Health (DPH) on April 8 in response to 22 violations DPH investigators found when they made unannounced inspections in August and September 2015.

The violations included failure to devise and follow adequate plans for pain management, failure to inform patients about the frequency and cost of services rendered, failure to reconcile medications and update plans of care, and failure to ensure timely coordination of care. Other violations cited were failure to get doctors’ orders before pre-filling medication syringes, failure to have a performance improvement plan in place, and failure to adhere to tracking requirements for adverse events, among others.

See the complete story at Connecticut Heath I-Team.