ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — New documents from a third-party law firm paint a picture of the failures that may have led to deaths in the heart unit at Johns Hopkins All Children’s last year. Among the worst - leaving needles in the chests of young children during surgery.
“It happens out of negligence, manifest negligence. There’s no excuse for that,” said Jay Wolfson, the Associate Vice President at USF Health.
For years, All Children’s has been known for its accuracy and Johns Hopkins is one of the top rated healthcare institution in the country.
"There was a president who was basically running this thing single-handedly and not talking to people while things were burning around him. It’s bizarre,” said Wolfson.
He says after combining names, the foundation started to crumble.
"They kind of just walked away. According to this report, they weren’t monitoring what was going on after they put their administrators who then hired their clinicians in place until something exploded,” Wolfson said.
The recommendations were released Friday and claimed leadership didn’t listen to concerns from physicians and nurses, and that reporting systems to help keep track of things going wrong weren’t there which left no safety net for patients.
"You can’t do a good clinical job unless you have those systems in place first,” said Wolfson.
The report also says many of the clinicians being hired didn’t meet certain credentials.
"Do you think of the Johns Hopkins would have higher standards? Maybe, and that’s mentioned several times,” Wolfson said.
He believes to get a strong reputation back. Leadership will need to listen and learn from healthcare experts who understand the field on both sides of the bay, “publicly, openly, transparently.”
In a statement Friday, Johns Hopkins says they recognize these crucial recommendations and vow to make changes right away to better protect patients in the future.
