The safety of D.C.’s urgent care patients could be in jeopardy because those centers are neither licensed nor inspected by the Health Department, according to a new government report.
The D.C. inspector general issued a management alert urging the Department of Health to obtain authority to license and inspect all health care facilities throughout the District, including “free standing” clinics that provide medical care and medical assessments.
The lack of inspections “could increase the District’s legal liability,” auditors wrote in the alert, issued Friday.
“More importantly,” the report states, “without the inspections, the health and safety of District residents may be at risk.”
It is unclear how many free-standing clinics there are in the District — a yellow pages search brings up about a half-dozen. The inspector general noted in its alert that DOH does not inspect physicians’ offices either, “which may be significant.”
“We’re all licensed and board certified,” Ivan Robinson, owner of two District urgent care facilities, said of D.C.’s medical practitioners.
Robinson said his clinics, unlike other urgent care offices, are inspected because they provide pediatric diagnoses and treatment for Medicaid.
The inspector general alert emerged from an ongoing audit of the Department of Disability Services. The agency’s Medical Evaluation Unit, which closed in September, performed basic medical testing, physical examinations and psychological evaluations.
But the inspector general found it was neither licensed nor inspected by the Health Department. Auditors then discovered that many private free-standing clinics — those not associated with a hospital — are not inspected either.
D.C. law defines a medical facility as a “hospital, community residence facility, maternity center, nursing home, group home, hospice, home care agency, ambulatory surgical facility or renal dialysis facility.” Those facilities are checked for cleanliness, food safety, accident hazards and pests, among other areas.
Clinics, however, are not defined in the D.C. Code and therefore “are not licensed or inspected,” Dr. Pierre Vigilance, Health Department director, told the inspector general in an Oct. 23 letter. DOH only licenses and regulates the “professionals who are employed there as well as the management of pharmaceuticals and radiological equipment,” Vigilance wrote.
Vigilance later acknowledged that new licensing standards were needed, and legislation to that end will be ready in January.
“I’m an advocate of patient safety,” said Dr. Ida Bergstrom, who practices medicine at Farragut Medical and Travel Care. “Whatever the government needs to do to ensure that for people, I think that’s fine.”
Farragut, Bergstrom said, is “just a physician’s office open to walk-in customers.”
Other states
» Maryland urgent care clinics must be associated with a licensed hospital.
» There is no evidence that Virginia clinics are licensed.
