At FWB hospital, 90 days to fix 'systemic issues'

Fort Walton Beach Medical Center is no longer in imminent danger of losing millions of dollars in Medicare reimbursements.

However, it is not free of the threat of having the reimbursements canceled by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The hospital also remained under a moratorium Tuesday from admitting mental patients detained under the state's Baker Act.

Hospital officials found themselves in trouble with state and federal agencies after mental patient Mark Rohlman escaped from hospital care July 21.

Rohlman, who had been involuntarily detained under the Baker Act, shot and killed Okaloosa County Sheriff's Deputy Anthony Forgione following his second escape. He then killed himself.

It later became public that involuntarily detained mental health patients were escaping from the medical center routinely and that the hospital's staff was not properly responding to the "elopements."

Officials at CMS, which distributes Medicare funding, removed the medical center from "immediate jeopardy" status late Monday, according to agency spokeswoman Lee Millman.

Millman said the hospital has been given 90 days to clear up "systemic issues" that could yet cost it the Medicare reimbursements.

"Now it's on to the systemic issues that need to be addressed," Millman said.

She did not go into detail about those issues.

CMS made its move only after receiving a recommendation to do so from Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration, officials said.

Fernando Serna, spokesman for AHCA, said officials from his agency were at Fort Walton Beach Medical Center on Monday reviewing the "immediate jeopardy status" it placed on the hospital Aug. 1.

The hospital was designated as being in immediate jeopardy when the state found "sufficient evidence to warrant concern for the safety of individuals brought to your facility on an involuntary examination," according to the AHCA notice.

Serna said findings of the Monday visit are still being put on paper and could be available today.

Hospital spokeswoman Vicki Story said hospital officials will comment on the AHCA recommendation after receiving the paperwork.

It also appeared Tuesday that the moratorium on Baker Act admissions could be removed this week, possibly as early as today.

"We expect to have a decision and will notify the hospital that it has been lifted or the reasons we can't lift it," said Janice Thomas, circuit administrator for the Department of Children and Families, the agency that sets Baker Act guidelines in Florida.

Thomas said DCF had requested updates to a corrective action plan the hospital was asked to produce after the moratorium was placed on it. Those updates were expected to be made Tuesday.

Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin can be reached at 863-1111, Ext. 1435.