East Texas

LUFKIN (AP) -- Nineteen patients of a DaVita Inc. dialysis center died in the five months before the troubled East Texas clinic temporarily closed in April, according to federal documents.

Records also show that the facility, which reopened July 2 after the company said it fixed staffing and operation problems, had a mortality rate 7.1 percent higher in 2007 than the state average.

The survey by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services was obtained by the Lufkin Daily News for a story published today.

State and federal officials conducted the report in May following a spike in patient deaths and health complications at the facility, which remains under investigation by Lufkin police.

DaVita spokesman Michael Chee has said the state survey found no link between the deficiencies outlined in the report and patient deaths in early April.

Also in May, a former DaVita nurse was charged with intentionally injecting patients with bleach at the clinic. Both patients survived.

According to the report, DaVita officials failed to monitor care provided to patients and did not immediately detect an increase in adverse events related to health and safety. It also found the facility did not keep complete and accurate patient medical records, including patient deaths which were not properly documented.

Causes of death or possible death trends from September 2007 through April 2008 were not documented, the survey stated.

"There was no evidence of any root cause analysis, nor any evaluation of the potential existence of systemic issues," according to the report.

The report also states that 25 people, or 27 percent of its patients, died in 2007. The state average is 19.9 percent, according to the report.