Code violations keep Atlantic City abortion clinic shut

TRENTON - Blood under operating tables, rusty IV poles, expired drugs and shoddy patient records are among the violations keeping an Atlantic City abortion clinic shut a month after state health inspectors closed it down.

Also, doctors performing abortions at the Alternatives clinic did not always scrub up first, according to a Health Department report released yesterday.

The clinic remained closed yesterday as it again failed to submit a plan on how it would fix the violations.

Health Department spokesman Tom Slater said that the corrective action plan is about a week late, but that the clinic appeared to be working on it based on questions that clinic personnel had posed to health officials in the last week.

The clinic's owner, Alan Kline, has had no comment on the clinic's closing, according to the Press of Atlantic City.

Slater said the clinic would remain shut until the violations are corrected.

Violations were uncovered after an anonymous complaint prompted a health inspection in June, Slater said. A more extensive probe uncovered more problems at the clinic, according to the 116-page report.

It was the first inspection at the clinic in more than five years, although Health Department rules require inspections of licensed clinics every other year.

Another abortion clinic, Metropolitan Medical Associates in Englewood, was shut in February and reopened about three weeks later after correcting violations.

Slater has said the department is behind on inspections because of a lack of manpower and a rapid increase in the number of ambulatory care clinics statewide.

He said the Health Department responds to every complaint, like the ones that led to inspections at Alternatives and Metropolitan.

The report details myriad violations at Alternatives, including:

A scrub area used for storage.

Unlabeled drug-filled syringes.

Sterile tubes in open packages.

Soiled table pads.

Nurses with expired licenses.

An overcrowded, not private, recovery room.

"This seems to be a pattern with clinics in the state of New Jersey," said Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life. "This shows a total disregard for women's health and women's lives."

She has asked Public Advocate Ronald Chen to intervene on behalf of women who had abortions at either of the two clinics. She wants Chen to use the powers of his office to ensure that abortion clinics are inspected regularly and that women who were patients at the clinics receive any follow-up health care they may now need.

Health officials do not keep a tally of abortion clinics in the state, and only a handful of New Jersey facilities advertise themselves as such. Abortions can be performed in any doctor's office.