It has been nearly a month since the death of James Tyree, but the federal government is looking into University of Chicago Medical Center. Tyree was the chairman of the parent company of Chicago Sun Times and chairman of Mesirow Financial. He also served on many Boards, including University of Chicago’s Medical Centers. Tyree battled medical conditions his whole life, among them he battled diabetes and had kidney and pancreas transplants and four eye surgeries. Although Tyree was suffering from stomach cancer and recovering from pneumonia, an autopsy revealed that he died from an air embolism after a dialysis catheter removal. Air embolisms are caused by oxygen bubbles in the bloodstream and can even be deadly if a substantial amount of air becomes lodged in the heart.
Although an air embolism is rare and hard to recognize, it prompted the federal government to take a closer look at University of Chicago’s Medical Center. After investigating University of Chicago’s policies and procedures of training for physician assistants and other medical personnel, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported that it was terminating University of Chicago’s medicare payments on April 28, 2011. Their main concern; no policies to ensure that these employees were trained and able to perform central line placement–a catheter procedure. University of Chicago Medical Center has until June 20, 2011 to comply with requests made by U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. By that date, the hospital must show that staffers are fully capable and trained in procedures like the one that caused the death of Tyree.
University of Chicago claims that proper documentation was available and that the investigation merely showed that all the employees had proper experience, training, credentials and competency.
As of April 16, 2011, the Tyree family has not taken any legal action.
