Hospital accreditation agency investigating complaint about U-M Health System's 6-month delay in reporting child porn

University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the Joint Commission contacted the U-M Health System and asked for information about the case. He said a response is being prepared.

University of Michigan Hospital

Joint Commission spokesman Bret Coons declined to say who filed a complaint and whether more than one was filed. He said the organization is reviewing the matter before determining the next step.

In May, a resident physician found child porn on a thumb drive that was left in a computer in the Pediatric Emergency Department at University of Michigan Hospital, records show. She suspected the drive belonged to another resident physician and told her supervisors, hospital security and the Office of the General Counsel about it. However, officials didn't report it to police for 6 months.

Stephen Jenson, 36, who worked as a resident physician at the hospital until late December, is charged in the case with four counts of possessing child sexually abusive material.

The Joint Commission is an independent not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 19,000 health care organizations and programs across the country, including the U-M Health System.

Coons said the review includes determining whether the delay in reporting child porn qualifies as a "sentinel event."

In this case, the Joint Commission would have to determine whether the incident put anyone at risk of serious psychological injury and requires immediate investigation. If it qualifies as a sentinel event, the health system would have to do a thorough investigation and prove to the Joint Commission that it's fixed the problem in order to retain accreditation.

"No major determinations have been made yet," Coons said.

The university has acknowledged that the child porn allegation made in May wasn't handled properly and asked the U-M Office of University Audits to review the matter.

Coons said the Joint Commission may respond to the complaint in one or more of the following ways:

• If the complaint raises concerns about a continuing threat to patient safety or if it suggests a failure to comply with Joint Commission standards, we may conduct an unannounced or unscheduled on-site evaluation of the organization.
• We may ask the organization to provide a written response to the complaint.
• If the organization is scheduled for its accreditation or certification survey in the near future, we may review the complaint and the organization’s compliance with related standards at that time.
• We may incorporate the complaint details into our database that we use to monitor quality issues and track trends with our accredited or certified health care organizations.
• Failure to comply with the standards may adversely affect an organization’s accreditation status.

Coons said he didn't know when the Joint Commission will decide how to proceed.

Lee Higgins is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached by phone at (734) 623-2527 and email at leehiggins@annarbor.com.