CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx. — The independent, non-profit group The Joint Commission visited Corpus Christi Medical Center Doctor's Regional Hospital on July 25 and subsequently put the facility on "preliminary denial of accreditation" status. Joint Commission accreditation helps a hospital receive federal funding.
Five days later the hospital put out a statement saying it temporarily was not accepting trauma patients, among other changes.
"Following a recent survey, it was determined that upgrades to certain functions in support of our operating rooms were needed to help ensure we continue to provide the highest quality care," CCMC Director of Public Relations Lisa Robertson said in her statement. "While we continue to perform surgeries, we are rescheduling some procedures and shifting them to the Bay Area campus and we are not taking trauma cases temporarily while we conduct this work."
Corpus Christi Medical Center put out another statement Friday saying surgeries were being performed at both the Doctors Regional and Bay Area hospitals, but that Doctors Regional still was not accepting trauma patients. That changed Tuesday, with a third statement from the hospital announcing trauma cases are welcome again at both hospitals.
"Bay Area and Doctors Regional are open and accepting trauma patients," Robertson said in her statement today. "We expect the upgrades to be completed soon, and we remain focused on caring for our community as we’ve done for more than 25 years."
Neither the hospital, nor the Joint Commission, described the nature of the upgrades. The commission says its visit wasn't scheduled, but was cause-related, most often meaning that it was conducted after the commission received a report of an event or incident from a medical facility. The commission also listed "an area in which performance issues were found" below its decision that CCMC go on preliminary denial of accreditation status.
"Existence at time of survey of a condition, which in the Joint Commission's view, poses a threat to patients or other individuals served," an online Joint Commission record reads.
