West Alabama Women’s Center

Clinic is No longer performing abortions

• Doctor failed to document fetus viability, size, and location before he performed an abortion
• Failure to maintain an accurate and complete medical record:
  • size of cannula used not documented
  • amount of blood loss in patient who hemorrhaged not documented
  • no documentation of whether the products of conception were normal or abnormal for gestational age
  • no documentation of fetal age in weeks
• Expired medications and supplies in use
• The facility failed to ensure the staff followed the guidelines for hand hygiene and medication administration.
• The staff failed to ensure the medication was accessed in a dedicated medication preparation area, used a new needle and syringe to access a multi-dose vial and failed to ensure hand hygiene was performed after glove removal.
• The clinic staff failed to completely document care and services provided to patients related to lab work and operative reports. This had the potential to affect all patients served.
• MR # 9 presented to the clinic 8/19/15 for a surgical abortion procedure. The patient was transferred to the hospital in respiratory distress. A MD (Medical Doctor) note was present in the medical record not dated and/or signed with a last name or credentials of the writer. A second note was in the medical record
  regarding MR # 9, dated 8/21/15 with no time to indicate when the note was written or by whom.
• Based on review of medical records and an interview the clinic failed to assure the physician documented prior to performing an abortion, on its own form, if the fetus was viable. This had the potential to affect all patients served by the clinic and did affect 16 of 22 records reviewed.
• Failure to sterilize instruments
• Report made by surveyor on 10/13/2020 found that brown rust was found on multiple metal dilators.