Six months of inspections at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital: August to January
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was issued an immediate jeopardy warning in January after an elderly patient went missing.
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Thomas Jefferson University Hospital was given one of the state’s most serious safety warnings after inspectors found that an elderly patient had gone missing from the emergency department after staff failed to routinely check on him.
The incident, first reported by The Inquirer earlier this month, was one of four times state inspectors investigated potential safety problems at the Philadelphia hospital; three complaints were declared unfounded.
Here’s a look at the publicly available details:
Jan. 26: Inspectors issued an immediate jeopardy warning after a 71-year-old nursing home resident experiencing mental health problems walked out of the emergency department and was gone for three hours before anyone noticed. Inspectors found that staff had failed to record in the patient’s medical record whether they had checked on him every two hours as required. The patient returned to the hospital the next day. Inspectors lifted the warning within hours, after the hospital submitted a plan to address safety lapses by adding a nurse to the emergency department to help triage patients and moving patients with higher-level emergencies to an internal waiting room.
Jan. 5: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance. Complaint details are not made public when inspectors determine it was unfounded.
Nov. 21, 2023: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Aug. 22, 2023: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.