The California Department of Public Health has fined 12 California hospitals, including Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch, for noncompliance with licensing requirements that caused, or was likely to cause, serious injury or death to patients.

The following is from the CDPH investigation report:

On May 26, 2010, a patient with a history of kidney and heart disease died after being admitted to Sutter Delta’s emergency department for low blood pressure and a blood infection. An electrocardiogram showed that the patient had atrial fibrillation, which is an abnormal cardiac rhythm of the upper chambers of the heart, usually resulting in an irregular rhythm and lower output by the heart.

A physician checked “Telemetry” as the level of care the patient should receive. Telemetry involves using an electronic device in a nursing unit providing continuous cardiac monitoring. A central monitoring station receives transmitted signals from the telemetry device and allows staff to view and monitor heart rhythms.

Electrodes attached to the patient’s chest area are connected to a battery-operated telemetry transmitter placed in a pouch worn by the patient. Staff caring for the patient cannot view the patient’s heart rhythm while at or near the bedside. The patient’s cardiac rhythm waveform appears on the central monitor screen located outside the patient’s room.

At approximately 2:30 p.m. the patient was transferred to the telemetry nursing unit. The nurse assuming care documented at 2:45 p.m. that the patient was alert and placed on telemetry cardiac monitoring. At 6:20 p.m. the nurse documented “Patient tolerated feeding well. No NN [nausea or vomiting]. No SIS [signs or symptoms] of aspiration.” There was no nursing documentation verifying whether the patient’s cardiac rhythm was or was not monitored on the telemetry unit during that time period.

At 6:44 p.m., 24 minutes later, the nurse documented in Nurses Notes “Pt. (patient) found unresponsive, not breathing, Asystole (a life-threatening cardiac condition with no electrical or heart pumping activity) on Tele (telemetry). No pulse. Code blue started.” The code recorder documented that the patient’s cardiac arrest was not witnessed, that he was not breathing, and had no pulse. The code team was able to obtain a pulse and the patient was placed on dopamine and powerful cardiac stimulating drugs given intravenously.

At 7:33 p.m. the patient became pulseless, and cardiac rhythm showed ventricular tachycardia (an abnormal rapid heart rate that can deteriorate quickly into life threatening cardiac rhythms). He was defibrillated by an electric shock and then was transferred to the Intensive Care Unit, where he was unresponsive and his pupils were dilated and fixed. The cardiologist documented, “The patient has likely to have suffered CNS anoxia [no oxygen to the brain. resulting in irreversible brain damage].”

Review of the cardiac monitoring strips showed no recording of the patient’s heart rhythm for approximately 44 minutes. The ICU Telemetry manager stated the monitor was on standby, meaning the patient’s cardiac rhythm was not being monitored. The telemetry unit was very busy when she returned from her break and she assumed he was off the unit for a procedure.

The unit’s instructions state, “Warning. If you put telemetry in Standby mode, you must remember to turn monitoring back on when the patient returns to the unit.” The physician stated she had ordered telemetry for Patient 1 as she felt he was at risk for developing cardiac abnormalities.

Asked what her expectations of staff were when she wrote orders for the patient to be monitored. She stated, ”When I wrote the orders, I expected them to be done.” The physician stated she was not informed that the patient had been placed on cardiac monitor standby. The length of time the patient was unresponsive was unknown. The last time any staff member documented seeing the patient was 24 minutes before being discovered unresponsive.

The physician confirmed that the longer the delay in initiating CPR, the less chance for successful resuscitation. “A five-minute delay would result in central brain Injury,” she said.

According to a 2004 report by the American Heart Association: “The two most important intervals affecting patient survival are the collapse-to-first CPR attempt interval and collapse-to-first defibrillatory shock interval. Patients whose cardiac arrests are not witnessed have markedly reduced chances of successful resuscitation.”

This facility failed to prevent the deficiency(ies) as described above that caused, or is likely to cause, serious injury or death to the patient, and therefore constitutes an immediate jeopardy within the meaning of Health and Safety Code Section 1280.1(c}. Sutter Delta failed to ensure the health and safety of its patient when it failed to follow its policies and procedures related to ongoing patient monitoring and assessment and provision of patient care. This is the first administrative penalty issued to this hospital. The penalty is $50,000.

Administrative penalties are issued under authority granted by Health and Safety Code section 1280.1. New legislation took effect January 1, 2009 that increased fines for incidents that occurred in 2009 or later. Under the new provisions, an administrative penalty carries a fine of $50,000 for the first violation, $75,000 for the second, and $100,000 for the third or subsequent violation at the same hospital. Incidents that occurred prior to 2009 carry a fine of $25,000 and are not counted in this total.

When hospitals receive their survey findings, they are required to provide CDPH with a plan of correction to prevent future incidents. Hospitals can appeal an administrative penalty by requesting a hearing within 10 calendar days of notification. If a hearing is requested, the penalties must be paid if upheld following an appeal.

All hospitals in California are required to be in compliance with applicable state and federal laws and regulations governing general acute care hospitals, acute psychiatric hospitals, and special hospitals. The hospitals are required to comply with these standards to ensure quality of care.

Response from Angela Juarez-Lombardi, manager, Sutter Delta Communications & Marketing:

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) notified Sutter Delta Medical Center this week that it received an administrative penalty for an individual patient care situation that occurred in June of 2010. The penalty referred to our failure “to implement policy and procedures for continuous cardiac monitoring” of a patient.

An administrative penalty is a monetary penalty assessed against general acute hospitals after an investigation conducted by the CDPH. Sutter Delta immediately self-reported this incident upon discovery. Sutter Delta Medical Center is no longer in Immediate Jeopardy. The status was changed in a short amount of time because of the medical center’s prompt response.

Sutter Delta’s greatest priority is patient safety, and initiated a very aggressive and thorough review process following the event. The medical center developed and submitted a corrective action plan that improves training, documentation, processes, communication and accountability to prevent an event like this from reoccurring.

While it was unfortunate that the medical center received this penalty, we welcome regulatory reviews and surveys as they assist us in maintaining our constant vigilance to improve medical care.

The final touches are being put on a simple but elegant ceremony marking the Peace Pole dedication at Antioch City Hall on Monday, September 12th at noon.

Tho program consists of music while the assembly gathers; welcoming remarks by Walter Ruehlig; a chant for entering into the moment in honor of September 11th, 2001; a reflection by Rev. Thomas Bonacci; a meditation for peace in honor of the International Day of Peace; a presentation to the Mayor by Rev. Bonacci; the Mayors’ remarks and reading of a Proclamation; a rendition of the “Impossible Dream” by baritone Richard Assadoorian; a dedication of the Peace Pole by movement, gesture and chant led by Rev. Sierra Lynne White; concluding remarks; the release of doves; and the symbolic community touching of the Peace Pole.

The event is sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Project located in Antioch and is part of the 11 Days of Peace Celebration starting on September 11th and ending on the International Day of Peace, September 21st. Activities at sixteen houses of worhip from Fremont to Brentwood range from blood drives, children’s concerts, open houses, prayer services, lectures, garden dedications, poetry jams and folk-sing alongs centered on peace. For a calendar of events, see www.interfaithpeaceproject.org.or call (925) 756-7628.

Buddhist, Catholic, Congregationalist, Episcopalian, Hindu, Mormon, Muslim, Presbyterian, Protestant, Seventh Day Adventist, Sikh, Sufi groups are participating under the aegis that there can be no lasting peace until the religions of the world have peace.

The Peace Pole is eight foot treated cedar with the words ‘May Peace Prevail on Earth’ ingrained in twelve languages common to our area. The tradition of planting peace poles began in Japan in 1955 in memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Peace poles can now be found at the base of Mt. Everest, the magnetic North Pole in Canada, Gorsky Park in Russia, and the Pyramids at Gaza. They have been dedicated by world leaders such as Jimmy Carter and religious figures such as Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama.

Friends of Animals Services is proud to announce their annual Black Cat Ball will be held at the Lone Tree Golf Course and Events Center in Antioch on Saturday, October 1, 2011 commencing at 6:30pm. Now celebrating its 16th year, this premier fundraiser is a notable and fun event whose proceeds directly benefit the Antioch Animal Shelter animals.

This year’s Ball includes hors d’oeuvres, a seasonal buffet, music by the Malcolm Hunter & John Seppala Jazz Duo, dancing, a costume contest (costumes optional) and raffle. The Honorary Chair will be State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. Ticket prices are $65 for adults and $35 for children under 13 years of age.

Formed in 1979, Friends of Animals Services is a non-profit animal welfare organization dedicated to supporting the extensive services offered by the Animal Services Program for the City of Antioch. Working together to promote animal welfare and public awareness which results in humans and animals living together in harmony, their efforts support a range of programs which positively impact the Antioch community.

Under the jurisdiction of the Antioch Police Department, the Antioch Animal Services is responsible for the enforcement of Local and State Laws relating to the care, control, and protection of animals and of our citizens. Officers’ responsibilities include picking up and confining stray, sick, injured, vicious and dead animals; issuance of dog licenses; patrolling the City streets; control of animal nuisance problems and animal euthanasia. The Animal Shelter also provides adoption, volunteer, and education programs.

According to Antioch Police Chief Allan Cantando, “Attending the Black Cat Ball is a great way for the community to support the Antioch Animal Shelter. Working together with Friends of Animal Services, and through the generosity of the public, our staff are able to deliver more services to the increasing number of animals in our community who need help.”

Not able to attend the Ball? Barbara Sobalvarro, President and Founder of Friends of Animal Services, confirms there are other ways you can help support the Antioch Animal Shelter through financial contributions, raffle prizes and sponsorship.”Not only are donations tax deductible, but the bulk of the money we receive from the public is directly used to help our precious shelter animals by paying spay/neuter costs, facilitating responsible adoption of animals, celebrating well planned community-awareness events and for special medical treatments.”

For more information or to purchase tickets to the 2011 Black Cat Ball, please contact Friends of Animal Services at (925) 431 8318, www.friendsofanimalservices.org or send a check to P.O. Box 1242, Antioch CA 94509.

If you call the Antioch Animal Shelter, as I did on Tuesday September 6th (the day AFTER Labor Day), you will hear a recording which includes the the statement “the shelter is open to the public Tuesday thru Thursdays and Saturday from 10 AM to 5PM, closed Mondays, Fridays and major holidays.

The reason I called was because a friend had stopped by the shelter that morning morning to inquire about a dog up for adoption and found the shelter closed.

Seeking an explanation I emailed Jim Jakel, the Antioch City Manager to inquire. Receiving no reply, I emailed Allen Cantando, Chief of Police who oversees the operation of the animal shelter. Here’s my email and the reply: Why wasn’t the animal shelter open Tuesday morning. Their hours say closed Mondays and Fridays, open Tues thru Thurs and Saturday from 10 – 5? His succinct illogical reply was “because Monday was a holiday” left me scratching my head.

I later discovered, by clicking on the animal shelter web site that a note had been posted stating that the shelter would be closed Monday AND Tuesday in celebration of the Labor Day holiday. Guess someone forgot to change the recording to reflect the web posting.

Add Note: The new hours for the Antioch Police Records unit and the public counter are Mondays thru Thursday 9 AM to 1 PM, closed Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holidays. Wonder if they were open Tuesday morning?

UNO’S PIZZA FREE with donation to EAST COUNTY MILITARY FAMILIES in HONOR OF FIRST RESPONDERS & VETERANS FOR 9/11.

We are offering a FREE individual cheese & Tomato deep dish pizza to everyone free of charge. All we ask is for a donation any amount from $1 to $10 and we will donate all the proceeds to East County Military Families & Friends.

DINE IN ONLY. This is being offered from 11am to 8pm on Sunday, 9-11. 4827 Lonetree Way Antioch Williamson Ranch Plaza 925-522-8554

The summer of 2011 proved to be an unusual one for two local educators who typically anticipate the summer as a time to refresh and regroup after a busy school year.

Instead, Rick Barton, AP Environmental Science and Earth Science teacher at Antioch High School, and Lynda Ramos, a 5th grade math, language arts, science and history teacher at Kimball Elementary School, packed their bags and joined a group of similarly dedicated teachers to embark on a unique professional development opportunity at the Colorado-based Keystone Center.

Barton and Ramos were afforded their opportunity thanks to Dow California Operations in Pittsburg, California, and for each it was an experience that they deemed inspiring, and one for which they have nothing but praise.

In the case of Barton, the Keystone Institute was, “The best institute I have attended in my sixteen years of teaching. The program was amazing, the facilitators were awesome and the location was incredible.”

Barton goes on to say that he was able to bring back materials that he will use in his biology, earth science, and environmental science classes this year. In addition, because so many of the concepts taught are transferrable, he has acquired some great math and language arts lessons that he’ll be able to use with his team.

When asked if he had any concerns about his time at Keystone, the depth of his experience is apparent: “My biggest concern on returning was sorting everything out so that I didn’t forget anything. I came back with tons of material but more importantly, I came back motivated and excited for the start of the school year!”

Ramos is similarly enthusiastic about her time at the Institute and notes the caliber of professional educators from around the country who were part of the training: “The institute was very organized and planned out to every detail along with a very intense curriculum. The curriculum covered all areas of my own teaching from language arts, math, and science to social studies.”

Ramos also found it helpful that activities for the teachers were inquiry-based which allowed the teachers to experience what students experience.

“As a fifth grade teacher, I learned a great deal about sustainability in science as well as the larger issues that face our country,” she said. “For example, there was an activity where the teachers were in groups of four. We were given different choices as to what was more important to sustain – like the rain forest versus glaciers or between freedom of speech or museums. Then, we were to place them in different sections like the environment, the economy, or ethics. What a valuable lesson for all students.”

Ramos is excited to get back to school and begin sharing what she has learned and believes the time she spent was extremely valuable to her own professional development. “I now have a wealth of lessons from teachers around the country, in addition to the lessons I received at the Institute,” she said.

And, for Patty Deutsche, Senior Manager of Public Affairs at Dow, there is no better validation of Keystone than that sort of feedback.

“Education is an area where Dow places considerable emphasis, and the Keystone Center is one of our longest-standing educational partnerships and one where we see terrific value,” she said. “By providing local teachers with new approaches, unique educational resources and an innovative learning environment we believe we are helping to improve the quality of science education as well as raising awareness about today’s environmental issues. This is especially critical so that front-line educators, those who are up in front of the class day-in and day-out, can meaningfully convey how the actions of today can have far-reaching effects on the future of tomorrow.”

To learn more about what Dow is doing to further science and science education, please visit Dow at www.dow.com. Key Issues is a national teacher professional development training program within the Keystone Center for Education – a long-term strategic education partner of The Dow Chemical Company.

To the publisher:

You own the newspaper, so you have every right to publish your opinions, but I don’t have to agree with them. I can’t agree with your statements about scripture and sexual orientation in your “Publisher’s Response.”

I feel that your statements are not based on any fact but solely on your opinions. Your response sounded suspiciously like Creationist ideas or Anti-Climate Change arguments.

I also felt, and here I must admit that I have no facts only conjecture, that your article about the McNerny Town Hall meeting had only references to the point of view of one side of the aisle. I suspect that there must have been some comments supportive of Mr. McNerny, but none were referenced in the article.

That said, I will read future issues of your paper, but for the sole purpose of finding out who is advertising in it and be sure to avoid patronizing those businesses.

Disappointed Antioch resident,
Roger Martin

——

Mr. Martin,

Thank you for reading the paper and sharing your thoughts.

In response, you wrote that my “statements are not based on any fact” when I actually cited the American Psychiatric Association’s own website, that there is no proof either way that gays and lesbians are born that way.

I also referred to basic physiology.

Both of those arguments to support my position have nothing to do with “Creationist ideas” and I believe are very strong.

As for them having anything to do with being “anti-climate change” is a complete disconnect to me. I don’t see the two issues as remotely related.

As for the article on Congressman McNerney if you had attended his “town hall meeting” (which was held in a very small room that could only accomodate 20 people at the most – which I believe was intentional, but didn’t mention) you would have recognized it was quite kind toward him.

The meeting was also poorly publicized, but I didn’t mention that either.

I took many pages of notes but had to condense it down to what could fit in the paper and to give the general feel of the meeting.

It was his own fellow Democrats who hammered him on issues, one of which I cited regarding not voting to raise taxes on the rich in Obama’s first two years.

On the question of Medicare the Congressman’s response was rather confusing as he discussed MediCal instead. But I didn’t include that in the article.

He also got questioned on the failure of the No Child Left Behind education policy by administrators from Brentwood school districts, but I had to cut that part out to fit in the paper, due to limited space, unfortunately.

I quoted him exactly and included his verbatim responses to the questions posed to him.

The congressman’s experience was similar to what other Members of Congress have experienced across the country from even members of their own political party and is why some aren’t holding public town hall meetings during the summer recess – because people are upset with Congress in general. Some are holding tele-town hall meetings instead so they can better control the conversation.

So I believe the article was very fair and accurate as to what occurred.

I’m sorry to learn of your response in not supporting Antioch businesses who advertise in the paper because you disagree with either my viewpoint or articles you don’t like. Helping promote Antioch businesses and grow our local economy, as I’m sure you can appreciate, is seriously needed and one of the main reasons I started the paper.

My paper reaches more homes in Antioch than any other.

We didn’t have to run the letter to the editor critical of my article in the July issue. But we’re willing to print both sides of issues and even those critical of me, my views and/or our articles.

We’ll even publish your email on our website and in our next issue, to demonstrate that further.

To be fair, do you apply the same standard to all newspapers and other publications which contain advertising and which you read, if you don’t like their editorials or articles? Do you like or agree with all the articles and editorials in the Times, Antioch News or Chronicle? I seriously doubt it.

But if that’s your policy then you’re going to seriously limit where you can shop, do business and dine in town.

Plus, what you’re doing is demonstrating you disagree with my First Amendment rights of free speech and freedom of the press, because you’d prefer my newspaper go out of business by seeking to keep advertisers from advertising in it.

So is that what you want – an America where only your or one side’s views are expressed? I would surely hope not.

Allen Payton
Publisher

The Mt. Diablo Audubon Society will showcase their talents at Antioch’s Lynn House Gallery September 10th – 24th, on Wednesdays and Fridays from 2-4 PM. The exhibit opens with an artist reception on Saturday, September 10th from 2-4 PM. The artist reception and exhibit are free.

The exhibit features Mount Diablo Audubon Society members who are committed to the sustainable balance of our community’s people, birds, other wildlife, and habitat through conservation, education, and advocacy. The exhibit will showcase the artwork of the society’s members and the region’s natural environment through paintings, photography, and other artistic mediums.

Participating artists are Joel Summerhill, Dave Kwinter, Paul Schorr, Megan Sandri, Julia Starr, Maury Stern, David Merrill, Gloria Cannon, Scott Hein, Jean Matuska, Deborah Kirshen, Brian Murphy and Ellis Myer.

The Lynn House Gallery is located at 809 West First Street, in Downtown Antioch. For more information, visit http://art4antioch.org/Mt.Diablo-Audubon-Exhibt2011.asp or e-mail Diane@Art4antioch.org.