Feds may yank Medicare funds from Placerville hospital
By Cynthia Hubert, Sacramento Bee
The emergency room of a Placerville hospital from which a mentally ill woman escaped in March had problems so severe that they represented “an immediate and serious threat” to the safety of all psychiatric patients treated there, a state investigation found.
The California Department of Public Health investigated Marshall Medical Center after Linda Carol Clark, who was being involuntarily held at the facility as a danger to herself, fled the emergency room and commandeered an ambulance. Clark, 39, of Folsom, later was shot to death by police.
The probe found the hospital in violation of various federal and state regulations, according to a letter mailed to the facility this week by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The state determined that the most serious deficiencies, all of which pertained to the handling of patients in the emergency room, were corrected during the inspection, the letter said.