LeRoy Carhart and Germantown Reproductive Health Services is prominently mentioned in latest report on abortion clinic safety entitled “Unsafe: How The Public Health Crisis in America’s Abortion Clinics Endangers Women.” This latest investigative report focuses on the increasingly suspect safety record of America’s abortion industry, including non-Planned Parenthood clinics which are currently performing two-thirds of all abortions.
Evidence collected from 32 states on hundreds of abortion clinics (including Planned Parenthood abortion clinics) and individual abortionists establishes that the practice of abortion in America has devolved into the “red light district” of medicine and is populated by dangerous, substandard providers. Unsafe is both a “snapshot” in time, focusing only on abortion practices since 2008, and the “tip” of the proverbial iceberg, convincingly demonstrating a nationwide pattern of abuse that characterizes an industry that fights to keep profits high and standards low.
From the report’s list of violations:
LeRoy Carhart and Germantown Reproductive Health Services
1. The Statement of Deficiencies Report from the September 29, 2015 inspection found deficiencies included:
-Failure to ensure employees were proficient in Rh factor testing.
Lab was not in compliance with Federal and State requirements at time of the survey. The clinic lab state permit had expired in August 2013.
Authorities:
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction, Germantown Reproductive Services, Inspection Date September 25, 2015, available at http://abortiondocs.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/05/GERMANTOWN-LABORATORY-SURVEYFAILURES-9-25-15.pdf
2. The Statement of Deficiencies Report from the April 16, 2014 inspection found deficiencies included a failure t o ensure that all staff are competent to do their jobs, placed the patients at risk of having care provided by untrained or unqualified individuals.
Authorities:
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction, Germantown Reproductive Services, Inspection Date April 16, 2014, available at http://abortiondocs.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/ACPGermantown-Reproductive-HealthServices-04-16-2014.pdf
3. The Statement of Deficiencies Report from the February 13, 2013 inspection found deficiencies included:
-Administrator failed to ensure that nursing staff had experience and training sufficient to demonstrate competency in the administration and monitoring of intravenous sedation medications.
-Failure to verify staff maintained current MD sate licensure to practice as an RN at the facility for one of 2 staff reviewed. (RN license expired 1/28/12.)
-Failure to develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure staff were trained in the emergency transfer of a patient to the hospital from the facility.
-Staff failed to appropriately use single-dose medication vials and failed to label pre-drawn medication syringes.
-Failure to ensure that the patient’s medical records included a discharge diagnosis for 10 of 10 patient records reviewed.
-Failure to ensure adequate surgical instrument reprocessing in order to maintain a sanitary environment for the provision of surgical services.
Authorities:
Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Statement of Deficiencies and Plan of Correction, Germantown Reproductive Services, Inspection Date February 13, 2013, available at http://abortiondocs.org/wpcontent/uploads/2014/05/Germantown-Reproductive-Initial-Survey-2-13-2013.pdf
4. On February 7, 2013 Jennifer Morbelli, an abortion patient of Leroy Carhart, died of 3rd trimester (33-weeks) abortion complications. She started suffering chest pain and other discomforts, and was unable to reach Carhart. She was taken to an ER, which could not reach Carhart. She suffered massive internal bleeding in her abdominal cavity and slipped into a Code Blue condition approximately six times before dying. The Chief Medical Examiner ruled that she died because amniotic fluid from her womb spilled into her bloodstream, making her blood unable to clot.
Authorities:
Woman Died From Abortion Complications, USA Today, Jun. 12, 2013, http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/02/21/woman-late-term-abortion-death/1935799/
Steven Ertelt, Young Woman Who Died from Botched 33-Week Abortion Identified, LIFENEWS, Feb. 10, 2013, http://www.lifenews.com/2013/02/10/young-woman-who-died-from-botched-33-week-abortion-identified/
Jill Stanek, BREAKING: Carhart’s victims identified, Feb. 10, 2013, http://www.jillstanek.com/2013/02/breaking-carharts-victims-identified/