Memorial Hospital Ordered to Stop Accepting Emergency Patients, Performing Surgeries

The Rhode Island Department of Health has ordered Memorial Hospital to stop accepting emergency patients, new patients and performing surgeries, citing concerns for patient safety.

The move is to designed “to safeguard patients against any injury or harm’’ while the department evaluates Care New England Health System’s plan to close the financially-ailing hospital in Pawtucket, Health Director Nicole Alexander-Scott said in a statement Thursday.

Memorial currently does not have the “staffing levels necessary to safely administer care in these areas,” the statement said.

Care New England said in a statement that  it intends to “fully comply with all measures set forth in the order immediately.” 

The department’s announcement follows a consent order signed Thursday by state health department and Care New England officials. The agreement “should not be read as an indication of the future of Memorial Hospital following the issuance of RIDOH’s decisions,’’ the statement said.

On Nov. 11, Memorial notified EMS providers that it was no longer accepting accepting emergency services patients. On Nov. 13, Memorial shut down its intensive care unit. The hospital’s contract with its anesthesia services ended on Thursday. All elective surgeries have been canceled as of Dec. 1^st.

The hospital no longer has on-site gastrointestinal physicians, orthopedists or other specialists, the health department said.

Memorial will maintain respiratory therapy, radiology, CT scans, MRIs, laboratory, and pharmacy services. The hospital must maintain appropriate staffing levels, the statement said, required to support these services.

Care New England is seeking permission from the state to operate out-patient primary care services on the Pawtucket campus under a licensing agreement with Kent Hospital in Warwick.

The United Nurses and Allied Professionals Union, which represents Memorial’s employees, said in a statement that the state “has yet to hold Care New England leaders accountable to their highly publicized promise to maintain some level of operations on that campus.”