State health regulators yesterday announced maximum fines against 18 hospitals, including four in San Diego County, for 22 preventable errors that killed patients, injured them or were likely to cause serious harm.
They assessed $25,000 for each mistake, for a total of $550,000.
The local hospitals' errors, detailed in The San Diego Union-Tribune on Saturday, were:
Staff at Pomerado Hospital in Poway used a malfunctioning anesthesia machine on three patients March 31, causing them to be partially awake and experience pain during their surgeries.
Staff at Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla allowed a patient to fall to the floor during her March 26 surgery because she wasn't properly restrained on a tilted operating table.
Managers of Promise Hospital in San Diego allowed a person with a revoked nursing license to treat patients and teach nurses how to administer a potentially dangerous anti-clotting medication between Dec. 31 and late March.
Staff at Sharp Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa failed to turn on a ventilator, causing the death of a heart patient March 21.
More information about those incidents is available by going to uniontrib.com/more/hospitalfines.
The only region with a higher penalty total was Orange County, which had six fines.– C.C.
Explosives from training might be heard off-base
CAMP PENDLETON: Residents living up to dozens of miles away from Camp Pendleton can expect to hear noise from munitions used during training that starts this morning on the base, Marine officials said.
The exercises, which will occur 24 hours a day, are expected to last through Friday afternoon. Artillery units will fire explosives into designated parts of the base.
– H.T.P.
Recording-arts center opens at Southwestern
CHULA VISTA: Southwestern College debuted its $5 million Center for Recording Arts and Technology yesterday on its main campus in Chula Vista as classes resumed for the 2007-08 academic year.
The college remodeled two music buildings to produce the center, where students will take classes in recording arts, telemedia and electronics.
About 18,000 students are expected to take classes at Southwestern this fall.
The college is rebuilding its San Ysidro satellite campus, which is expected to open in January.
This year the college is introducing new academic programs in logistics and transportation and culinary arts. It has also launched new programs to train bilingual legal office professionals, virtual office professionals and database administrators.
–C.M.
State Department honors reservist from San Marcos
SAN MARCOS: An Army reservist from San Marcos has received a high-level award from the U.S. State Department for her work as a civil affairs officer in Iraq.
Capt. Laura Peters, 31, received the Superior Honor Award last week at Fort Bragg, N.C. She deployed to Iraq in March 2007 as part of a provincial reconstruction team, which specializes in humanitarian and rebuilding work.
Peters served as a liaison between Army officials and Iraqi tribal and political leaders in Samarra and Tikrit.
The Superior Honor Award recognizes a specific act or “sustained extraordinary performance” over at least one year. The State Department rarely gives the honor to military personnel.
Peters taught biology at San Marcos High School and later Mission Hills High School from 2002 to 2006.
–S.L.
Coronado swim coach to be in Paralympics Games
CORONADO: Joe McCarthy, Coronado swim coach, leaves tomorrow for Beijing and his third Paralympics Games.
His team threw him a going-away party Friday in Coronado. He does such a “phenomenal job with kids” that a couple hundred people showed up, said Coronado High School senior swim coach Randy Burgess.
McCarthy is the American record holder for his class in the 50-and 100-meter freestyle, the 50-meter backstroke and 50-meter butterfly. He also coaches at Coronado High and at the Coronado Aquatics Club, and he will compete in three individual events and two relays in Beijing.
In 1996 at age 16, McCarthy broke his neck while surfing. After months of physical therapy, he returned to high school. He later entered a swim competition for the disabled and began breaking records.
McCarthy, who lives in downtown San Diego, competed in the 2000 and 2004 Paralympics. The Beijing Games begin Sept. 6. He plans to blog daily at his Web site: joemccarthyswim.com.
“I'm really excited,” said McCarthy, 28.
–J.Z.
Staff writers Cheryl Clark, Hieu Tran Phan, Janine Zúñiga, Chris Moran and Steve Liewer contributed to this report.
