Avoiding a potentially devastating cut-off of funds, Sutter Roseville Medical Center has submitted a “satisfactory” correction plan to address alleged problems in its emergency department.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently approved the plan, which will change how patients exhibiting psychological emergencies are handled.

“Our plan of correction addressing the concerns raised by the State surveyors has been accepted,” Sutter said in a statement. “As part of this effort, we have implemented improvements in emergency department procedures that assist us in providing appropriate screening, treatment, and referrals for those who present there.”

State regulators’ concern was apparently sparked when Roseville resident Albert Cariaga, 39, went missing from the hospital shortly after being taken to the emergency for “depression-related issues.” He was later found to have hanged himself from a tree in a wooded area behind the hospital.

As reported in The Press Tribune in April, an investigation that followed alleged the patient did not receive adequate medical screening and ongoing monitoring, nor was he properly treated to stabilize his medical condition, which included an overdose of anti-depressants. It also alleged errors in the management of 21 other patients with psychological emergencies.

Sutter is not an inpatient psychiatric facility but is required to stabilize and secure patients before transferring them to the appropriate agency.

In the case of Cariaga and another unidentified male patient who also went missing, a key finding was that the hospital did not provide continuous staff attendance or continuous staff observation as required by a police order, called a 5150 hold.

Sutter’s correction plan, which does not admit any wrongdoing, sets out several policy changes designed to improve hospital performance, according to the document.

According to the plan, “A revised policy now includes direct observation of all high risk mental health patients, which includes a posted security guard or designee in the corridor outside of rooms where high risk mental health patients are housed.”

In addition, Sutter says it will update hospital forms to require more stringent documentation of psychological patient assessment; complete staff training on identifying suicide risk; and increase audits of hospital records to ensure nurses and doctors are in compliance.

Sutter, which submitted an earlier correction plan that was rejected, faced the loss of federal Medicare funding June 30 if it did not satisfy the hospital oversight agency under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Treatment Act, or EMTALA, said CMS spokesman Jack Cheevers.