Maggots Found in Soup, on Patient at Hospital, Union Alleges

Photo courtesy of Cory Doctorow

By City News Service

California health officials say they plan to investigate allegations that maggots were found earlier this year on a patient and in soup served in the cafeteria at Parkview Community Hospital in Riverside.

The allegations stem from a complaint filed to the California Department of Public Health on Monday by the SEIU-UHW union against the hospital. It said that earlier this year, an employee reported finding more than 50 maggots in a patient’s nose and mouth, and in April, a nurse reported maggots floating in the hospital cafeteria’s lentil soup, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. Riverside County health officials said they, too, will investigate.

Hospital officials have denied the claims, saying the allegations are part of the union’s way of gaining leverage in a labor dispute, according to the Daily News.

The complaint also alleges a failure to sanitize emergency department hallways, where patients are treated because of overcrowding, and that workers used an uncertified vehicle to transport patients to an outside MRI facility.

A spokesman for the California Department of Public Health said Wednesday the state has investigated 285 complaints against Parkview since 2009, including incidents reported directly by staff at the hospital, according to the Daily News. The state also received a complaint about maggots in 2011.

State officials conducted two federal certification visits to Parkview since 2009 and have cited the hospital for six adverse events, the Daily News reported. In 2010, the hospital was fined $50,000 by the state for removing the wrong kidney in a patient.

The union acknowledged it is in a labor dispute with Parkview, where they said more than 500 workers voted in March 2014 to join SEIU-UHW. But hospital management has refused to recognize the union.