One year of inspections at Jefferson Abington Hospital: December 2024 - November 2025
Inspectors visited the Jefferson Health facility more than a dozen times to investigate potential safety problems in the one-year period.
Jefferson Abington Hospital was cited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health for sanitation problems in its trauma center last year.
The incident was among more than a dozen visits health department inspectors made to the Jefferson Health facility between December 2024 and November 2025.
Here’s a look at the publicly available details:
Dec. 4, 2024: Inspectors followed up on a July 2024 citation for failing to report an incident in which a mental health patient ran away from the hospital and security staff left the hospital’s campus to apprehend them.
Dec. 23: The Joint Commission, a nonprofit hospital accreditation agency, renewed the hospital’s accreditation, effective September 2024, for 36 months.
Jan. 16, 2025: The hospital was cited for sanitation issues, including several dirty triage bays, a brown substance under a patient’s head and on the floor, and a black, sticky substance on a hospital bed wheel. Administrators retrained maintenance workers on cleaning protocol and assigned additional staffers to ensure daily cleaning.
Jan. 16: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint and for a monitoring survey but found the hospital was in compliance. Complaint details are not made public when inspectors determine it was unfounded.
Jan. 28: Inspectors visited for a mental health monitoring survey and found the hospital was in compliance.
Feb. 19: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
March 12: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
April 17: Inspectors followed up on the January citation regarding sanitation issues and found the hospital in compliance.
May 29: Inspectors came to investigate two complaints but found the hospital was in compliance.
July 16: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Sept. 5: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Sept. 18: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but found the hospital was in compliance.
Nov. 5: Inspectors came to investigate a complaint but 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.
