LAS VEGAS -- There are new details in the state's investigation of unexplained medical events in the neonatal intensive care unit at Sunrise Hospital. Those events lead to the death of a premature infant.
Late last month, the state cleared Sunrise of any wrongdoing without revealing much of anything about the scope of its investigation. However the I-Team has new information about what surveyors did and didn't do to reach their conclusions.
Last month, state investigators released a half-page report declaring that Sunrise followed regulations for the prevention of and the response to more than a dozen catheter disruptions in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. But it refused to disclose how it came to that conclusion.
Now the I-Team has obtained an amended version of the review. The three pages detail the scope of the investigation and its ties to law enforcement. According to the report, officials with the state Department of Health and Human Services, in cooperation with the Metro Police Department, interviewed 10 Sunrise employees, including three nurses, for its review.
On-site investigators also observed the NICU and concluded it was only accessible to authorized personnel. Metro police have previously named two nurses as persons of interest in its criminal investigation of the catheter disruptions.
According to the report, the hospital contacted Metro after the 14th incident which was the disruption of an umbilical line that lead to the death of a premature infant. The review focuses on the facility, not any individuals, so it doesn't reach any conclusions about the nurses Jessica Rice and Sharon Ochoa-Reyes, who remain under a cloud of suspicion. Neither has been charged with a crime.
Sunrise Hospital did not respond to I-Team requests for comment on this and the Metro Police Department says its investigation is on-going.
