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TRENTON
- The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services today
halted all admissions to Memorial Hospital of Salem County until
further notice. This action was taken as a result of deficiencies
discovered during department inspections over the past two weeks.
The
curtailment includes a prohibition on performing all non-emergency
surgical procedures on inpatients as well as outpatients.
Memorial
Hospital's emergency room will remain open, but no patients will
be admitted from the emergency department into the hospital. All
emergency department patients needing continuing care will be transferred
to other hospitals. The hospital may continue diagnostic laboratory
and radiology procedures on inpatients and outpatients.
The
curtailment is based on the findings of a biennial survey conducted
by department staff from February 19 to 21, and a revisit survey
conducted on February 26, 2002. These inspections found significant
violations of licensure standards in the areas of nursing care,
infection control, patient care services, and pharmacy.
The
department's Office of Emergency Management has contacted the Underwood
Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU), West Jersey MICU, and the dispatch
centers in Cumberland, Salem and Gloucester counties to inform them
of Memorial Hospital of Salem County's status. The department also
notified other area hospitals, specifically South Jersey Hospital-Bridgeton,
South Jersey Hospital-Elmer, Underwood Memorial Hospital in Woodbury,
and Christiana Hospital in Delaware, of a possible redirection of
patients from Salem County.
The
curtailment imposed today on Memorial Hospital of Salem County will
be lifted when the hospital is able to demonstrate to the department's
satisfaction that the deficiencies have been substantially corrected.
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