ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. — WPTV is hearing from a member of the board of trustees at HCA Florida Palms West Hospital near Royal Palm Beach, a day after we told you about concerns raised regarding HCA hospitals across Florida.
An NBC Nightly News report Wednesday cited doctors at HCA hospital in Florida who said patient care has suffered from cost cutting, alleging unsanitary surgical instruments, an overflowing ER, roaches in the operating room and anesthesiology errors that resulted in patients waking up during surgery.
Thursday, WPTV heard from patients and ICU nurses in southeast Florida who also cited concerns regarding staffing and financial cuts leading to lower health care quality.
Former Palm Beach County commissioner Melissa McKinlay sat down with WPTV's Kate Hussey to address the concerns raised.
McKinlay has been a board of trustees member at the HCA Florida Palms West Hospital for about five years, and in that amount of time, she said she isn't aware of any concerns like that raised at the hospital.
"I've never had any of those concerns expressed to me," McKinlay said.
McKinlay said she can't speak for other hospitals, but said she's confident in the quality of health care at Palms West.
"I hope that whatever concerns are being raised at the hospitals on the west coast of Florida are being addressed, but we don't have those same concerns on the east coast," McKinlay said.
"For anybody in Palm Beach County, Okeechobee County, the Treasure Coast, Broward County, who saw that [NBC Nightly News report], and now are wondering, 'Is my local HCA hospital safe?' What do you say to that?" Hussey asked.
"I would say HCA is one of the largest health care providers in the country, and just because there are conditions or concerns at one hospital doesn't mean that infiltrates the entire system," McKinlay said.
Some of the allegations included both staffing and financial cuts at HCA Hospitals on both the Gulf and east coast of Florida, leading to lower quality health care. McKinlay said that isn't the case at Palms West.
"No, they haven't cut costs, they're actually investing," McKinlay said.
When asked about staffing cuts, McKinlay said Palms West hadn't made those either.
"No, I would tell you they've done the opposite, because of the pandemic, health care systems are paying a premium to hire new staff," she said.
McKinlay also said she was a patient here herself Monday and said she wouldn't recommend a hospital to others that she wouldn't trust herself.
"I can't explain what's going on on the west coast, that's for that hospital administrator to deal with, I know that at Palms West, we're being led by a former firefighter, so I have full confidence in his skills and the decisions he's making," McKinlay said.
According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, Palms West has a hospital consumer assessment of 65%, which is about the same as the state average in Florida.
The Leapfrog Group, which assesses overall hospital quality and safety, gave Palms West an "A" grade. It is the only hospital in Palm Beach County to be A-Rated for patient safety by the Leapfrog Group.
The hospital said Healthgrades named Palms West in the top 10% in the nation for Patient Safety for the past five consecutive years and said during that time, they were recognized with a Patient Safety Excellence Award from Healthgrades in 2021.
The hospital also added they have recently been accredited as the only Robotic Surgery Center of Excellence by the Surgical Review Corporation (SRC) in Palm Beach County after meeting rigorous patient safety standards around its operating room and robotic surgery procedures.
The hospital is also rated 47/187 HCA hospitals in the U.S. for patient safety, and its operating room earned the Unit of Distinction for Excellence in Surgical Services in 2019 by HCA.
