ICYMI – An abortion clinic had their license terminated earlier than intended due to health officials receiving tips that over three patients had been hospitalized after getting a procedure done at the site.
The American Family Planning of Pensacola, an abortion clinic by Integrity Medical Care LLC, received an emergency order from the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration to suspend their operations until a review is conducted and approved.
The order indicated that the clinic neglected to report the hospitalizations of the three women who underwent procedures as well as failing to record their vital signs while under the care of the clinic.
It is known that abortion clinics that provide patients with second-trimester procedures are required to hold onto records of serious injuries that patients suffer as a result of their procedures in addition to reporting the incident within ten days, which the emergency order alleges the clinic did not do.
“The medical record contains no record of monitoring or assessment of the patient during the procedure and afterward,” the order read. “This lack of documentation also includes no record of vital signs.”
Specifically, one woman had come to an Alabama hospital “hemodynamically unstable, tachycardic with no initial blood pressure,” and extremely low oxygen saturation. To treat her, the hospital was required to resuscitate her and offer a mass transfusion of blood to replace the amount she had lost.
Even though the abortion clinic in question had a transfer agreement with a local hospital, they did not aid in facilitating the woman’s relocation after they discharged her. The spouse was told to take her to a hospital across state lines, which he immediately protested.
American Family Planning did not record any effort to contact the patient or provide any additional aftercare following the treatment she received by them.
Another woman was rushed to the hospital after a procedure where the patient left the surgical room covered in pools of blood, as stated by medical personnel. The surgeon at the hospital who operated shared that when she initially arrived, she had been unconscious, intubated, and in the process of receiving a blood transfusion. In fact, the damage to her uterus was so severe that the surgeon had no choice but to perform a full abdominal hysterectomy.
This is not the first time the clinic had failed to maintain compliance with record-keeping, as there have been multiple fines levied by AHCA for neglecting to submit data on the number of abortions performed.
The third woman to require hospitalization had a uterine surgery to repair a perforation and partial removal of her colon following a procedure, which again, the clinic did not report.
The emergency order and compliance violations can be viewed here by entering “American Family Planning” into the search box marked “Party Name.”
