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Hospital Kept Woman’ s Dead Body For One Year But Told Her Family She Had Been Discharged

Author Babs

Yes, you read the headline right. “Hospital Kept woman’s dead body for one year but told her family she had been discharged.” How could a hospital be so reckless? This horrific incident happened in the Sacramento, California area and Im wondering how the hospital made this mistake. It makes me think about my recent trip to the emergency room here in St. Petersburg over the weekend. Im grateful that the staff took great care of me. So how did Mercy San Juan Medial Center make this mistake?

California Hospital Kept Woman’s Dead Body For One Year But Her Family Thought She Was Missing

According to NBC News, Jessie Marie Peterson was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center on April 6, 2023 after suffering from type one diabetes. Days after the 31 year old was admitted to the hospital, her mother called to check on her and they told her she had been discharged. From there, the family filed a missing persons report and searched for her all around town.

The search came to an end in April of this year when the Sacramento County Detectives office notified Petersons family that she was found deceased at Mercy San Juan Hospital. After being kept at an off-site cold storage, Jessie’s body had been decomposed. So much, that the family could not have an open casket funeral. The decomposition also made it impossible to determine wheather malpractice played a role in Petersons death.

A representative for the hospital could not be reached to comment at this time. The family is seeking $25 million for alleged negligence. I hope the family wins this lawsuit because how do you make such a big mistake? If it were not for the detectives, the family would still no know where there daughter was. I will keep you updated on this story when I hear more.

Shandra “Babs” Littleton is a member of the WiLD Squad. She’s originally from Detroit but has spent most of her “grown-up” life in Fort Myers, Florida where she graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University. Babs loves to write about everything from Tampa concerts, to WiLD murders that happened in Florida, and her favorite businesses.

Tampa Hospital Safety Grades: See The Highest and Lowest

When it comes to hospitals, everyone knows of a place to go. However, if someone was to ask you what your hospital was graded based on safety, would you know? I didn’t either, but now we do thanks to Leapfrog. Here are the Tampa hospital safety grades for the next time someone asks you how good is your Tampa hospital.

When we say “how safe is your hospital?” we aren’t talking about the hospital’s security measures. Although that is important to consider. When talking about patient safety, Leapfrog refers to medical errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. In order to receive a good score, the hospital has to have a good team and system with checks in place to prevent any mistakes.

How Leapfrog Got The Tampa Hospital Safety Grades

Leapfrog is a national independent nonprofit that uses up to 30 national performance measures from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and produces a single letter grade representing a hospital’s overall performance in keeping patients safe from preventable harm and medical errors. After evaluating 3000 hospitals, the data is analyzed by their expert panel and evaluated on the weight of each measure based on evidence, opportunity for improvement and impact. Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades are the gold standard measure of patient safety, cited in MSNBC, The New York Times, and AARP The Magazine. 

Everyone will be pleased to know that Florida is in good hands. The Sunshine State ranks 13th in the nation for patient safety. More specifically, Tampa Bay area ranks 16th with roughly 55% of hospitals receiving an A as a grade. Good news for everyone in the bay area. If you would like to check your hospital’s grade for spring 2024, go to hospitalsafetygrade.org.

There are 32 hospitals in the Tampa bay area, including areas like New Port Richey, Clearwater, St. Pete, Tampa, Brandon, and Wesley Chapel. For the sake of time in this article, we only focused on 10 central Tampa hospitals, mainly in the Tampa/St. Pete/Clearwater area. Where does your hospital rank?

Tampa Hospital Safety Grades From Highest and Lowest

  • Saint Joseph's Hospital - A

    Address: 3001 W Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd

    Saint Joseph’s Hospital has consistently scored an A since Fall 2021. They have scored 100 in practices to prevent errors, and doctors, nurses, and staff.

  • HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital - A

    Address: 2901 W Swann Ave

    HCA Florida South Tampa Hospital has improved over the past 3 years. They went from a “B” score in 2021, down to a “C” in 2022, then earned an “A” grade in Fall of 2023. They scored low in infection rates and problems with surgery.

  • AdventHealth Carrollwood - A

    Address: 7171 North Dale Mabry Highway

    AdventHealth is one of the highly talked about hospitals in the Tampa Bay area. They’ve had an “A” grade in patient safety dating back to the Fall of 2021. They scored 100 in measures that protects patients from errors or injuries like  staff working together, nursing and bedside care, and effective leadership.

  • St. Joseph's Hospital - North - A

    Address: 4211 Van Dyke Rd

    St. Joseph’s Hospital in North Tampa has been an “A” hospital since Fall 2022, upgrading from a “B” grade the year before.

  • Morton Plant Hospital - A

    Address: 300 Pinellas Street, Clearwater

    Morton Plant Hospital has been a highly graded hospital since Fall 2021. The received the best score possible for practices to prevent errors, hospital staff, and problems with surgery.

  • St. Anthony's Hospital - A

    Address: 1200 Seventh Avenue North, St. Petersburg

    St. Anthony’s Hospital is the only “A” rated hospital in the St. Pete area. They scored low in infection rates and problems with surgery.

  • Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital - B

    Address: 701 Sixth Street South

    Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital (formerly Bayfront Health St. Petersburg) has seen improvements in their scores over the past few years. They were graded a “D” back in Spring of 2021 and a “C” in Fall 2023.

  • AdventHealth Tampa - B

    Address: 3100 East Fletcher Avenue

    AdventHealth Tampa is actually dropped a grade from 2021-2023. They scored above average in infections and slightly above average in safety problems like complications.

  • Tampa General Hospital - C

    Many may be surprised to see TGH with a C grade, but this is actually the fourth “C” ranking of the past six rankings. Even though they are consistently ranked among the nation and world as one of best hospitals, Tampa General scored below average in more than half a dozen categories which sank their score. It just shows that even though a hospital that is seen as world leader for patient safety and patient outcomes can still receive an average grade with Leapfrog’s strict grading system.

     

  • HCA Florida St. Petersburg Hospital - C

    Address: 6500 38th Ave N

    HCA Florida St. Petersburg Hospital has had a declining grade in the past year. They had an “A” grade all 2022 and spring 2023. They declined to report their scores for Effective leadership to prevent errors, nursing and bedside care, and staff’s working together.

 

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