Nine months of inspections at Doylestown Hospital: March to November 2024
The hospital was cited for not properly handling patients who came to the emergency department needing mental health services.
Doylestown Hospital was cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for multiple safety lapses in its emergency department over a nine-month period last year.
Health inspectors visited more than a dozen times to investigate potential safety problems at the Bucks County hospital between March and November 2024.
Here’s a look at the publicly available details:
April 30: Inspectors visited for a monitoring survey and found the hospital was in compliance.
May 2: 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.
June 11: Inspectors cited the hospital for not properly reassessing patients waiting for care in the emergency department. Inspectors found that a patient was triaged at 5:30 p.m. as a level 3 (out of 5) acuity, meaning they needed urgent medical attention. But no one checked on the patient again until 11:30 p.m., when staff called for the patient and realized they had left the hospital without receiving care. Inspectors found the hospital’s policies did not specify how often emergency department staff should reevaluate patients awaiting care. The hospital updated its policies to specify how often staff must check on patients, based on their acuity level. Those assigned level 3, for instance, must now be reevaluated at least every two hours.
June 24: The Joint Commission, an independent hospital-accreditation organization, renewed Doylestown’s accreditation for 36 months, effective April 2024.
July 12: Inspectors followed up on a January citation and found the hospital in compliance. Doylestown had been cited in January for not investigating patient complaints in a timely manner.
July 25: Inspectors cited the hospital for failing to follow proper patient identification protocol before surgery. Inspectors found no evidence that a doctor or other staffer had verified the identity of a patient at the hospital for same-day surgery prior to bringing them to the operating room. Staff are required to verify patient identity 20 minutes before a procedure. The hospital updated its policy to be clear that patients must be seen by a doctor, and that their identity must be verified and documented 20 minutes before any surgery.
Aug. 7: Inspectors followed up on a citation from February regarding discharge paperwork problems and found the hospital in compliance.
Sept. 25: Inspectors visited for a special monitoring survey and found the hospital was in compliance.
Sept. 25: Inspectors followed up on the June citation regarding monitoring emergency department patients, and found the hospital in compliance.
Oct. 1: Inspectors cited the hospital for not properly handling a patient who experienced a mental health crisis in the emergency department. Inspectors found that the patient qualified for being involuntarily committed because they were at risk of self-harm or hurting other people, but fled the hospital before they were checked in. During their investigation, which began in July, inspectors found that the hospital was not properly documenting patients who came to the emergency department for mental health services before referring them to the specialty crisis center. The hospital updated its policies to require specialized mental health nurses in the emergency department and to include new rules about documenting mental health patients who come to the emergency department before referring them to the crisis center.
Nov. 6: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Nov. 14: Inspectors followed up on the October citation regarding mental health patient protocol and found the hospital was in compliance.
Nov. 20: Inspectors followed up on the July citation regarding identifying patients prior to surgery and found the hospital was in compliance.
Pennsylvania Department of Health routinely inspects hospitals to ensure the facility is safe for patients and that staff are following all safety protocols. Inspectors may also visit when a hospital staff member or patient files a complaint.
Not all safety violations spark an on-site investigation from inspectors. Hospitals are required to self-report the most serious safety violations and often work directly with the state to address them. Complaint details are not made public when inspectors determine it was unfounded.
The Inquirer tracks publicly available hospital reports related to a complaint, special monitoring, and general safety inspections. The Inquirer does not track inspections for new equipment or occupancy surveys, unless problems are identified.
Inspection reports are publicly available online and are released 40 days after the report is completed.
The Inquirer is publishing roundups of state inspection reports for Pa. hospitals in our coverage area.
