Health reports reveal 7 ambulance calls and no doc after surgery at Illinois abortion clinic

According to the Chicago Tribune, Illinois state officials have moved to revoke the license of an abortion clinic.

According to the state’s March 10 notice of revocation, the Illinois Department of Public Health also fined the Albany Medical Surgical Center abortion clinic $40,000 for several violations that are threatening to the public interest, health, safety or welfare.

But there were other violations found including an abortion doctor who left the clinics while patients were recovering from surgery and several ambulance calls fro medical emergencies.

From the report:

Albany Medical Surgical Center houses one of three Chicago abortion clinics operated by Family Planning Associates Medical Group.



The medical group’s associate medical director, Dr. Allison Cowett, said Albany and Family Planning Associates are separate entities and that Family Planning Associates has not been threatened with license revocation. The building housing the clinic is owned by Albany, Cowett said.

In January, a separate state inspection assessing the clinic’s medical practices found two violations of regulations: not having a doctor present on one occasion when patients were recovering from surgery, and failure to report several ambulance transfers of patients to hospitals.

Both violations were mentioned in the notice of license revocation, but they did not contribute to the $40,000 fine.

The state levied a separate penalty of $10,000 related to the doctor’s absence; it was later reduced to $7,000 in a compromise agreement between Albany and the state.

The January inspection also found that the clinic had failed to report seven ambulance transfers of clinic patients to the hospital in the first three quarters of 2014 and that an employee said transports had not been entered on official reports for four years.

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