July 24, 2007--

New Jersey Right to Life sent a letter to Public Advocate Ronald Chen on July 17, 2007 requesting that swift legal action be taken to rectify the abuses occuring inside NJ Abortion Clinics and address the lack of no-show inspections by the Department of Health and to locate and assist any women who may have experienced complications, infections or sexually transmitted diseases through the use of unsterilized instruments and unsanitary conditions from any of these clinics.  Today, the Press of Atlantic City provided details of a report issued by the Department of Health.  The Department of Health admitted not inspecting the clinic in Atlantic City in six years and only did so did so after receiving a complaint about the clinic.  In February, the NJ Department of Health shut down Metropolitan Medical Clinic in Englewood, NJ after receiving a complaint from Newark Beth Israel Hospital about a botched abortion on a 20 year old who almost died.  The Department of Health had not been in to inspect Metropolitan for five years before the incident.

Click here to read NJRTL's press release 

Dried blood, rust, dirt at clinic

ATLANTIC CITY — Blood-stained operating tables and expired drugs were just some of the violations discovered by state officials after an inspection of the Alternatives abortion clinic last month, according to a report released Monday.

The state-licensed facility was closed by state health officials June 22 after they uncovered several violations detailed in the 116-page report.
The state Health Department’s inspection report on Alternatives is the department’s first in six years despite a state requirement to write one every other year.
After the initial inspection, the clinic was shut down immediately for “posing immediate and serious risk of harm to patients” because of violations such as the clinic’s absence of a sterilizing scrub sink, according to a letter from the state to Alternatives. The complete report released Monday claims abortion physicians did not scrub for procedures and used the scrub area for storage. An unnamed employee defended the violation to investigators, saying: “Abortions aren’t really surgery, they aren’t sterile procedures.”

Missing from the report Monday was a corrective action plan, which facilities are required to deliver to the state 10 business days after receiving an inspection report. The corrective action plan normally responds to each violation with details for fixing the problem.

It has been 14 days since the state sent the report to the clinic’s owner, Dr. Alan Kline.

“Any delay or lack of response may jeopardize the licensure status of your facility,” states a letter to Kline that was attached to the report.
But state Health Department spokesman Tom Slater said Monday that he didn’t expect the agency to enforce any punishment for the clinic’s tardy response.
“They’re working with us in good faith. It’s a huge report and we do realize that,” Slater said.

The report is 106 pages longer than the Alternatives’ last inspection report. “They have called with questions and there has been some back and forth,” Slater said.
The state’s main contact for the clinic has continued to be Kline. The retired doctor, who also owns a clinic in Princeton, has had no comment on the clinic’s closing.
Dr. Steven Chase Brigham, the owner of six abortion clinics in New Jersey whose medical license was revoked previously in two states, has said he was in negotiations to buy the resort clinic shortly before it was shuttered. Brigham already had begun paying employees and conducted abortions at the clinic June 8 and June 15. The report says that the facility did not have registered nurses working on those days, despite the state’s requirement.

The facility only employs two registered nurses and both have allowed their licenses to expire, one in July 2006 and the other in May 2007.
But nursing licenses weren’t the only things expired at the Pacific Avenue clinic.

Some medications, including a half-full container of silver nitrate and several IV fluids, were expired. One IV fluid expired Feb. 1, 2005. Also, endotracheal tubes used during anesthesia had expiration dates ranging from August 2002 to May 2004.

The report also cited several sanitary issues, including “what appeared to be dried blood under the leg pads” on the procedure tables. Dust, rust, dirt and debris also were found on some equipment, and floors in the operating room, laboratory and recovery room were “soiled and stained.”

Some of the sterilization problems may have stemmed from the clinic’s lack of hot water. State standards require a licensed clinic to have hot water between 105 and 120 degrees. Based on routine water temperature checks during the past four years, the clinic failed to meet that standard 89 percent of the time, failing every check in 2004, 2005 and 2007.
Whether or not the pages of violations contributed to patient problems cannot be determined, but there have been many incidents at the clinic in the past two years.

Investigators located a patient log that listed 37 minor complications and five major complications. Although details were not provided in the report, it does note one incident recorded as a perforation. None of the incidents was reported to the clinic’s medical director and administrator, as required by the state. The medical director, Dr. Stuart Sackstein, resigned the day after the clinic was closed. He could not be reached for comment at his Absecon office Monday.

The clinic remained closed Monday. Each day it is closed the state charges Alternatives $2,500, which has accumulated to about $80,000.
Slater was not sure when to expect the facility’s corrective action plan. Once it is received, it will be reviewed and, if approved, the clinic will reopen, he said.
To e-mail Michael Clark at The Press:
Michael.Clark@pressofac.com