HOUSTON — A Houston hospital has removed its president and several other leaders following an unusually high number of patient deaths, a loss of some federal funding and a recent case in which a patient died after receiving a transfusion of the wrong blood type.
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center announced the decision to replace its president, Gay Nord, its chief nursing officer and a top physician on Monday, the Houston Chronicle reported. The departures come after investigative reports by the newspaper and ProPublica last year revealed a high rate of patient deaths within the hospital’s renowned heart transplant program, as well as major complications after heart bypass surgery and repeated complaints about inadequate nursing.
St. Luke’s lost Medicare and Medicaid funding for heart transplants in August, after the federal health agency found the hospital failed to fix its ongoing issues.
The leadership changes come in response to several missteps, particularly the fatal blood transfusion error on an emergency room patient, the hospital said in a news release .