East Bay hospital barred from treating some children after violations uncovered

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. - California health regulators banned an East Bay hospital from treating some children with serious illnesses.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the California Department of Health Care Services' investigation into John Muir Medical Center found serious issues and violations in the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit.

For now, the unit is not able to admit patients through California's Childrens' Services, a public health program. John Muir's intensive care unit is operated in partnership with Stanford Medicine Children's Health.

The department said it found delays in care and transports to higher levels of care, inadequate polices and procedures and issues in handling "adverse health outcomes."

John Muir said in a statement said it will develop an action plan in response to the findings, which it called "administrative" tasks.

"The findings by CCS were administrative – updating documentation, policies and procedures – and more than a dozen of the findings were resolved prior to our receipt of the report," the hospital said. "CCS did not identify any concerns about the quality of care provided to any patients."