Medical Malpractice
Background
Fort Washington Medical Center is located Prince George’s County, Maryland and has 37 beds. In 1983, the Fort Washington Ambulatory Care Center was first opened. The hospital opened in 1991, making it the youngest hospital in the Maryland healthcare system. It is an acute care hospital and serves 43,000 patients each year. The hospital employs more than 400 staff members, and is owned by Nexus Health. Fort Washington, Prince George’s Hospital Center and Doctors Community Hospital provide the vast majority of hospital care in Prince George’s County.
Fort Washington Hospital is the only community hospital in Fort Washington, Oxon Hills, Temple Hills, and the surrounding areas.
Fort Washington offers surgical services as well, including:
- General surgery
- Orthopedic surgery
- Urological surgery
- Plastic surgery
- Podiatry surgery
- Gynecological surgery
- Ophthalmological surgery
In addition to emergency and surgical services, the following are offered at Fort Washington Medical Center: diabetes education, imaging, inpatient stays, nursing, orthopedics, and preventive screenings. The nursing services include family medicine, perioperative and surgical services, intensive care, emergency, and ambulatory surgery. The diabetes education program is accredited by the American Association of Diabetes Education.
In 2014, Fort Washington Medical Center was recognized as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures by the Joint Commission, which focuses on hospitals improving performance on evidence-based interventions. The hospital also has an accreditation in ultrasound and digital mammography. Additionally, in 2014, the Center was ranked as one of the top safest local hospitals by Consumer Reports magazine. The other local top hospitals were: Calvert Memorial, Virginia Hospital Center, MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, and Sentara Northern Virginia Medical Center.
The Real Picture at Fort Washington
What does this tell us? Not much. The reality is that every hospital scores rather meaningless awards. The real story is this hospital is in trouble. In August 2015, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services told Fort Washington that the hospital would be terminated from the Medicare program if the hospital did not get their act together. Putting this in context, if Fort Washington actually lost the ability to participate with Medicare, the hospital could close about 20 seconds later.
Medicare got concerned after an inspection where it saw that it took seven hours for a man with a head injury to get medical care. Digging deeper it found a lot of violations of good practices.
Fort Washington has a one-star rating from Medicare. But the hospital options in Prince George’s County are not good. Doctors Community Hospital in Lanham received two stars. Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly, MedStar Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton, and Laurel Regional Hospital also got only one star. It is no wonder that medical malpractice lawsuits are so common in Prince George’s County.
In 2018, a watchdog group released grades for all Maryland hospitals. There was only one hospital that earned an “F”. That was Fort Washingtong Medical Center.
Cases Against Fort Washington
We were unable to find any verdicts or settlements involving Fort Washington Medical Center. This is an incomplete list of mostly medical malpractice cases recently filed against Fort Washington Medical Center (FWMC), along with the allegations made when available.
§ 2013: Dinkins v. FWMC – medical malpractice case alleging the failure to do diagnostic testing- § 2012: Christie v. FWMC – torts/negligence
- § 2012: Dinkins v. FWMC – tort
- § 2010: Wilson v. FWMC – medical malpractice claim arguing hardware was improperly inserted during a left hip replacement surgery
- § 2010: Blake v. FWMC – malpractice, negligence
- § 2009: Berry v. FWMC – torts/negligence
- § 2009: Wilson v. FWMC – torts/negligence
- § 2008: Winston v. FWMC – torts/negligence
- § 2008: Carroll v. FWMC – torts/negligence
- § 2006: Long v. FWMC – torts/negligence
- § 2006: Wade v. FWMC – medical malpractice
- § 2003: Butler v. FWMC – medical malpractice claim arguing the failure to diagnose and treat a small bowel obstruction resulting in peritonitis
Obtaining a Lawyer for Your Hospital Malpractice Claim
If you were treated at Fort Washington Medical Center and were seriously injured, please contact us. You can call us at 800-553-8082 or go online for a free consultation. We have a history of getting large verdicts and settlements in hospital malpractice cases throughout Maryland.
More Information & Related Topics
- An overview of medical malpractice claims
- What is the potential value of a medical malpractice case?
- Some sample verdicts and settlements of medical malpractice cases in Maryland