Abortion facility with ‘pattern of deficient practice’ denied license in Florida

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has denied a Pensacola abortion facility its application for an abortion facility license in the state, due to a “demonstrated pattern of deficient practice.”

According to Florida Right to Life, “[w]ithin the last couple of months” the abortion facility “made application in Pensacola, Florida as a first and second trimester abortion clinic whose listings include ‘July Medical Services’ and under the public facing name ‘Hope Medical Services.'”

The Pensacola abortion facility has ties to an abortion business, which previously operated in Louisiana under the legal name “June Medical Services, LLC,” doing business as “Hope Medical Group for Women,” and was a named plaintiff in the June Medical Services LLC v. Russo lawsuit, challenging a state requirement that abortionists hold admitting privileges with a hospital within 30 miles of the abortion business.

The case made it all the way up to the Supreme Court, when the law was struck down in a 5 to 4 ruling.

June Medical Services, LLC., d/b/a Hope Medical Group for Women

While the Shreveport Hope Medical Group for Women website is still active in Louisiana, the abortion facility side of the business has apparently relocated to Florida. A notice published online stated that “The Supreme Court of Louisiana has ruled that abortion is banned in Louisiana while the laws are challenged. This means we cannot perform abortions right now…. We are relocating to a place that will allow us to continue to see the women of Louisiana.”

In addition, a GoFundMePage set up for the abortion business states that the fundraising was done to “…help[] Hope Medical rehome the existing clinic to a new facility out of state. They are identifying a new location and will need funds to secure and renovate a building, and relocate staff and equipment.”

An article published by WWNO.org claimed:

Hope Medical Group opened in June of 1980, under the helm of administrator Robin Rothrock, who was then 29. Rothrock had been living in a Florida beachside town when she was asked to open a clinic in landlocked Shreveport, near the border with Arkansas and Texas…

[Kathaleen] Pittman joined Hope in 1992, after she saw a job ad in the Shreveport Times. She started as a part-time counselor, and eventually became the administrator after Robin Rothrock became sick with cancer and then passed away in 2010.

The report also claimed that “Hope lost a legal battle to stay open after Louisiana’s near-total abortion ban took effect, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade” and was “essentially closed.”

June Medical’s (Hope Medical Group for Women) Litany of Deficiencies

An Amicus Brief filed by Americans United for Life (AUL) in the June Medical Services Supreme Court case alleged that Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport “has been cited for violating patient health and safety regulations, as well as failing to ensure proper physician credentialing and competency.”

• 2010: Immediate Jeopardy situation identified for failing to monitor each abortion patient’s level of consciousness, respiratory status, and cardiovascular status during abortion procedures for patients receiving administration of intravenous (IV) medications and inhalation gas agents.

• 2010: Failure to monitor the amount or length of time the nitrous/oxygen gas was administered to abortion patients.

• 2010: Failure to ensure that the physician performed and documented a physical examination on each abortion patient.

• 2010: Failure to ensure that the physician verified a patient’s menstrual, obstetrical, and medical history and questioned the patient about past complications with anesthesia prior to administering the anesthesia and performing the abortion.

• 2012: Failure to ensure an abortion patient was medically stable upon discharge.

• 2012: Failure to ensure all patients completed and signed consent forms for the abortion procedure conducted.

AUL’s brief also alleged the facility had a record of “Unsanitary, expired, missing, or improperly stored instruments, medications, and medical supplies.”

• 2011: Failure to properly store and safeguard drugs and medication.

• 2011: Failure to label the name or strength of stored medications and identify the patient’s name, and the date and time the medication was prepared.

• 2011: Failure to document date and time medications were compounded, properly store the medications, and identify the corresponding storage time limit.

• 2012: Failure to properly handle sterile instruments and items, including placing opened sterile trays for future patients in procedure room while procedures were ongoing.

• 2012: Failure to properly clean and disinfect instruments after use in patient procedures.

AUL’s brief also alleged the facility had a history of “Missing facility licenses; unlicensed or uncredentialed medical staff providing patient care.”

• 2005: Failure to ensure the clinic’s Controlled Dangerous Substance (CDS) license was up to date.

• 2006: Failure to ensure physician had admitting privileges at a local hospital or a written transfer agreement with a physician with admitting privileges.

• 2009: Failure to ensure that laboratory technicians dispensing medication were licensed to do so.

• 2010: Failure to ensure qualifications, training, and competency of staff administering IV medications and analgesic gases to patients.

• 2010: Failure to have a qualified professional monitor a patient during the initiation and administration of inhalation gas agents and after the administration of IV medications.

• 2011, 2012: Failure to ensure nurse had the competency, skills, and knowledge to compound medication used by physicians in paracervical blocks.

And AUL’s brief also alleged the facility had a history of “Incomplete, inaccurate, and untimely patient medical records and state mandated reports.”

• 2010, 2011: Failure to include an individualized, signed, and dated copy of the physician’s standing orders in each patient’s medical records.

• 2011, 2017, 2018: Failure to timely submit Induced Termination of Pregnancy (ITOP) report with physician’s signature and failure to submit reports for patients who had complications.

July Medical Services, LLC., d/b/a Hope Medical of Pensacola

A search at the Florida Secretary of State’s website reveals that the Pensacola abortion business was set up in October of 2022 under the legal name “July Medical Services, LLC.” It also revealed that the Pensacola abortion facility was to be managed by Michael Rothrock. The Shreveport abortion facility, as stated earlier, was originally founded by Robin Rothrock, who passed away in 2010.

In denying the Pensacola abortion facility license to operate request, the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration sent the abortion facility a scathing “Notice of Intent to Deny for Initial Licensure” letter on July 25, 2023, addressed to the Clinic Administrator Kathaleen Pittman at 1120 East Avery Street in Pensacola.

The letter read in part:

Multiple controlling interests of July Medical Services, LLC., d/b/a Hope Medical of Pensacola, including Michael Rothrock and Kathaleen Pittman, demonstrated a pattern of deficient practice with June Medical Services, LLC., d/b/a Hope Medical Group for Women, an abortion clinic they operated at 210 Kings Highway in Shreveport, Louisiana. The regulatory history of June Medical Services, LLC. between June 2004 and August 2018, includes multiple Louisiana regulatory agency inspection reports showing violations, medical malpractice cases, and a Louisiana administrative action to suspend the abortion license.

The Pensacola abortion facility “could appeal but we are encouraged that the State of Florida’s administrative agency is fighting to keep them out of Florida,” an emailed release from Florida Right to Life stated. “Florida Right to Life also gives recognition to Louisiana Right to Life and Executive Director Ben Clapper for their fight to have them removed from Louisiana.”

“One by one we are fighting to save Florida’s preborn babies,” the release noted.