St Cloud Hospital Cleared of Security Concerns

ST. CLOUD, MN (WJON News)  — The Immediate Jeopardy status placed on St. Cloud Hospital by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was lifted on Friday morning.

Jeanine Nistler, Director of Communications for CentraCare Health, confirmed the lifting of the status as of 11:00 a.m. Friday.

This means the hospital has been returned to its normal status as a participant in the federal Medicare program by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).

“The hospital has been under intense scrutiny by MDH investigators, who in summarizing their findings were complimentary of our staff, policies and procedures. We were confident that this matter would be resolved quickly and are extremely pleased with this outcome.” – Statement released to the media by St. Cloud Hospital President Craig Broman.

Nistler says they were confident from the beginning they would meet the requirements necessary to have the status lifted.

“We took the action steps in our plan and MDH accepted them,” Nistler says. “They were focused on a single aspect of one of our policies and procedures and we’ve taken steps to educate everyone who provides direct patient care to make sure they understand and comply with [them].”

The status was in effect following an inspection by the MDH last week in response to the the October 18th shooting death of Aitkin County Deputy Steven Sandberg by a patient he was monitoring as a suspect for domestic violence.