Posted on 06/26/2007 11:15:02 PM PDT by Coleus
The area's sole abortion clinic was shut down late last week by state officials after inspectors discovered several violations within the facility, including problems with infection control, a state health department spokesman confirmed Monday. State inspectors returned to the Alternatives clinic Monday to conduct a full survey of the facility after discovering the violations Friday.
Investigators were led to the Pacific Avenue clinic by an anonymous complaint to the state concerning “change of ownership issues,” said Tom Slater, spokesman for the state's Department of Health and Human Services. Slater could not give any more information about the complaint, except to say that it was unfounded. What investigators did find, however, were several state violations in a number of areas at the clinic, including problems with infection control, documentation and the “facility itself,” Slater said. The spokesman could not elaborate on what investigators specifically found that prompted the closing.
“Some violations occurred, and there were enough in several areas that we agreed to curtail admissions," he said. Slater said the clinic's owner, Dr. Alan Kline, was notified of the closing Friday. Kline, a retired physician who also owns the Princeton Women's Center in Princeton, could not be reached for comment on Monday. The building, located on the 1600 block of Pacific Avenue, is owned by City Councilman John Schultz, who also was notified of the closing last week.
“The state inspector came in and said the water temperature in the heater was not hot enough. They have their own water system,” said Schultz, adding that he was unaware of any other violations beyond the water heater. Schultz said he believed it was protestors that sparked the investigation. The Alternatives clinic, which has been in the city for decades, has been a common destination for local protestors in the past. Claims made by one protestor from Burlington County in 1990 that he had found a fetus in a dumpster outside the clinic were eventually unfounded by state officials.
An injunction was issued in 1991 by an Atlantic County Superior Court Judge after patients trying to enter the office building were routinely approached by anti-abortion activists, who also, at times, obstructed the entrance. Another 14 protestors were convicted a year prior to the injunction for trespassing when they stormed inside the clinic and chained themselves to pipes. Whether the clinic is shut down indefinitely remains to be seen. Slater said he could not determine how long the clinic would be closed until the team of inspectors finished with their survey of the facility.
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Maybe they should have closed it before thousands were killed there.
Well, they are shutting down gun shops because they didn’t put up posters or because they abbreviated Baltimore, on the forms. So I really don’t have any sympathy to spare here.
How can they have “health violations” when their stated business is to kill people?
Yup, and they didn’t heal anyone.
In fact every single one of their operations resulted in death.
Woo-hoo!
Eugene abortion clinic closes; surprising many (Hooray !!!)
Prayer credited for closing of abortion clinic [Eugene, OR]
Planned Parenthood will shut down 3 clinics [Indiana]
Persevering Students Help Close Abortion Clinic [Santa Paula, CA--Thomas Aquinas College]
Abortion Clinic Managers Quit After Being Outed by Operation Rescue [Wichita, Kansas]
One Man's God Squad: Troy Newman's plan to stop abortions in Wichita, Kansas
Baby Saved From Abortion is Baptized [New Orleans]
Judges rule civil suits against Planned Parenthood can proceed [Los Angeles, CA]
CA: Abortion opponents hope to limit access for California girls (Prop 73)
Jill Stanek's Accurate Summary of Cincinnati Abortion Center Closing: 'Debi Does Ohio"
Clinic is caught in the fog of abortion war (Abortion Clinic Closes) [Springfield, Missouri]
PBS program looks at Mississippi's last abortion clinic
Former abortion clinic ‘resurrected’ as Catholic chapel [Buffalo, NY]
Health Department suspends license of Montgomery abortion clinic [Alabama]
Abortion center ordered to close: East Side clinic cited with violations [Cleveland, Ohio]
Yet another abortionist can't stand heat, quits [Daytona Beach, Forida]
Controversial Chicago Abortion clinic closing
Planned Parenthood closes clinic after clinic
Planned Parenthood to close Longview clinic (WA)
State shuts abortion clinic over health risks [Englewood, New Jersey]
Atlantic City abortion clinic shut for violations [New Jersey]
So what does it take to get an investigation on a clinic? anyone know?
Keep praying. Prayer will do it every time! Get some people organized and go across the street and say the Rosary. Start with once a week. Then expand. If you are Protestant, then just pray.
Our Blessed Mother has promised that she will ask her son to protect these innocent lives.
Last summer-fall with the Abortion Ban Bill / Referendum there were more people actively prayer sieging. Being an off year, the numbers have dropped off.
I have seen the power of prayer. :o)
**I have been there daily since mid-January**
This is exactly what it takes. God bless you!
So what does it take to get an investigation on a clinic?>>
Usually when a mother gets a bad infection, stroke or dies.
Coleus, do you know if BOUND4LIFE sieged this place? There is word that 2/3 of the functioning abortion clinics have shut in the last couple years. Many of them have been under prayer sieges!! Just wondering if you know about that regarding this one??? It really is a spiritual battle.
Contact Ronald Chen, Public Advocate, 609 826 5090
ATLANTIC CITY — Blood-stained operating tables and expired drugs were just some of the violations discovered by state officials after an inspection of the Alternatives abortion clinic last month, according to a report released Monday. The state-licensed facility was closed by state health officials June 22 after they uncovered several violations detailed in the 116-page report. The state Health Department’s inspection report on Alternatives is the department’s first in six years despite a state requirement to write one every other year.
After the initial inspection, the clinic was shut down immediately for “posing immediate and serious risk of harm to patients” because of violations such as the clinic’s absence of a sterilizing scrub sink, according to a letter from the state to Alternatives. The complete report released Monday claims abortion physicians did not scrub for procedures and used the scrub area for storage. An unnamed employee defended the violation to investigators, saying: “Abortions aren’t really surgery, they aren’t sterile procedures.”
Missing from the report Monday was a corrective action plan, which facilities are required to deliver to the state 10 business days after receiving an inspection report. The corrective action plan normally responds to each violation with details for fixing the problem. It has been 14 days since the state sent the report to the clinic’s owner, Dr. Alan Kline. “Any delay or lack of response may jeopardize the licensure status of your facility,” states a letter to Kline that was attached to the report. But state Health Department spokesman Tom Slater said Monday that he didn’t expect the agency to enforce any punishment for the clinic’s tardy response. “They’re working with us in good faith. It’s a huge report and we do realize that,” Slater said.
The report is 106 pages longer than the Alternatives’ last inspection report. “They have called with questions and there has been some back and forth,” Slater said. The state’s main contact for the clinic has continued to be Kline. The retired doctor, who also owns a clinic in Princeton, has had no comment on the clinic’s closing. Dr. Steven Chase Brigham, the owner of six abortion clinics in New Jersey whose medical license was revoked previously in two states, has said he was in negotiations to buy the resort clinic shortly before it was shuttered. Brigham already had begun paying employees and conducted abortions at the clinic June 8 and June 15. The report says that the facility did not have registered nurses working on those days, despite the state’s requirement.
The facility only employs two registered nurses and both have allowed their licenses to expire, one in July 2006 and the other in May 2007. But nursing licenses weren’t the only things expired at the Pacific Avenue clinic. Some medications, including a half-full container of silver nitrate and several IV fluids, were expired. One IV fluid expired Feb. 1, 2005. Also, endotracheal tubes used during anesthesia had expiration dates ranging from August 2002 to May 2004. The report also cited several sanitary issues, including “what appeared to be dried blood under the leg pads” on the procedure tables. Dust, rust, dirt and debris also were found on some equipment, and floors in the operating room, laboratory and recovery room were “soiled and stained.”
Some of the sterilization problems may have stemmed from the clinic’s lack of hot water. State standards require a licensed clinic to have hot water between 105 and 120 degrees. Based on routine water temperature checks during the past four years, the clinic failed to meet that standard 89 percent of the time, failing every check in 2004, 2005 and 2007. Whether or not the pages of violations contributed to patient problems cannot be determined, but there have been many incidents at the clinic in the past two years. Investigators located a patient log that listed 37 minor complications and five major complications. Although details were not provided in the report, it does note one incident recorded as a perforation. None of the incidents was reported to the clinic’s medical director and administrator, as required by the state. The medical director, Dr. Stuart Sackstein, resigned the day after the clinic was closed. He could not be reached for comment at his Absecon office Monday.
The clinic remained closed Monday. Each day it is closed the state charges Alternatives $2,500, which has accumulated to about $80,000. Slater was not sure when to expect the facility’s corrective action plan. Once it is received, it will be reviewed and, if approved, the clinic will reopen, he said.
BTTT
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