Yorkville Endoscopy has submitted a plan to fix its deficiencies in order to maintain its accreditation with the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
- Dec 17, 2014
AceShowbiz - Manhattan clinic where Joan Rivers stopped breathing a week before her death has filed a plan to fix its deficiencies. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) accepted Yorkville Endoscopy's plan on Tuesday, December 16.
In the court documents obtained by TMZ, Yorkville Endoscopy made several upgrades to its procedures. Among the changes were stricter procedures to credential physicians and observers who are admitted into operating rooms and a full assessment of a patient's weight, allergies, and medical history has to be performed before administering Propofol.
Other changes included supplemental oxygen should be routinely used and immediately available for patients sedated with Propofol, anesthesiologists must check vital signs at least every 5 minutes for patients sedated with Propofol and unscheduled drills to resuscitate patients using defibrillators/crash carts will be run 4 times a year.
CMS has given a January 7 deadline to the Manhattan clinic. If the clinic passes an unannounced inspection in the forthcoming days, it will not lose its accreditation.
Last month, CMS released a federal report which said Yorkville Endoscopy made numerous serious mistakes before Joan's death. The report also confirmed that a selfie was indeed taken during a procedure when Joan was sedated.
After the release of the report, Joan's daughter Melissa Rivers issued a statement through her lawyers Jeffrey B. Bloom and Ben Rubinowitz. "[Melissa] is terribly disappointed to learn of the multiple failings on the part of medical personnel and the clinic as evidenced by the CMS report," the statement read.
"As any of us would be, Ms. Rivers is outraged by the misconduct and mismanagement now shown to have occurred before, during and after the procedure," the statement continued, "Moving forward, Ms. Rivers will direct her efforts towards ensuring that what happened to her mother will not occur again with any other patient."
