St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children Fails to Adequately Investigate Deaths of Infant Heart-Surgery Patients
According to an article published by The Inquirer, the St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in North Philadelphia failed to determine why nine patients sustained fatal injuries during heart surgery. In February, The Inquirer reported that the death rate among infant heart-surgery patients at St. Christopher’s was almost triple the national average. One month later, a three-day surprise inspection took place at the North Philadelphia Hospital.
The report stated that in January, the hospital was ordered to stop performing all non-emergency heart surgeries. The hospital continues to hold pending an internal review. As of now, a submitted plan of correction has been approved by the state, but the procedures have yet to resume.
Jeffrey Jacobs, a leader of a countrywide effort to publicize surgical records as well as a chief of cardiac surgery at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, explains that each fatality in surgery should be carefully examined in order to learn why the fatality occurred and to prevent similar fatalities in the future.