Motion Picture and Television Hospital Faces Health Department Fine

The in Woodland Hills was one of two Southern California medical institutions fined by the California Department of Public Health for cases of surgical equipment being left inside patients, the state announced Friday.

The MPTH fine was the result of a 2010 knee operation in which a surgical sponge was left inside the patient, the Public Health Department reported. The $50,000 the hospital must pay is the first administrative fine for the institution.

The other hospital facing a fine is Keck Hospital of USC. That fine stems from a 2010 operation in which a small electrocautery tip was lift inside a patient, who needed to undergo a second procedure to have the item removed, according to the Public Health Department.

The hospitals were among 13 across the state that were fined a total of $825,000.