On April 30, agency officials imposed a “directed plan of correction” on the Cherry Hill Women’s Center. It ordered the Kings Highway facility to retain a full-time consultant director of nursing to oversee improvements there.

DOH staffers found the shortcomings during a review of the facility’s operations for its federal recertification and its state relicensure.

The problems represented “systemic breakdowns in leadership, regulatory compliance and patient safety safeguards,” a DOH official said in a letter to the center’s executive director.

A Cherry Hill Women’s Center representative could not be reached for immediate comment.

Among deficiencies tied to infection control, the DOH reported a failure to clean and disinfect the center’s operating room at the level required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And it alleged “widespread noncompliance” with professional standards for sterilizing equipment, as well as a failure to follow manufacturer instructions for the use of cleaning solutions and “high-level” disinfectants.

“These deficiencies contributed to Immediate Jeopardy findings related to sterilization and infection control processes, indicating a serious risk to patient safety,” said the letter from Gene Rosenblum, director of the Office of Program Compliance at DOH.

Rosenblum’s letter also said nursing services were flawed by the failure to remove expired supplies from active inventory.

That position would be separate from the consultant director of nursing. The consultant director is to serve at least 40 hours per week and provide weekly reports until DOH officials say they are no longer needed, and they’re to be hired by May 6.

But he said the order would not be stayed during an appeal because of “the emergent situation and the immediate and serious risk of harm posed to the patients.”

Jim Walsh is a senior reporter for the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.