State fines Hoag again

State officials have fined Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian after a patient, who was wheeled into a magnetized MRI machine on a metal gurney, was sucked into a giant magnet, crushing her leg, the California Department of Public Health announced today.

Hoag will have to pay a $50,000 penalty after state health officials found the hospital failed to protect the health and safety of the patient, state public health officials said.

This is the third administrative penalty handed down by the Department of Public Health has handed down to Hoag in the past two years. Hoag was fined in September after a patient who came to the emergency room complaining of chest pains in December was disconnected from a cardiac monitor for more than 30 minutes during his stay at the Newport Beach hospital. The patient went into cardiac arrest while his heart rate was not being monitored and died, according to a state report on the incident.

Hoag also was fined in 2008 after a retractor blade was left in a patient’s abdomen after a surgical procedure. The patient had to undergo a second surgery to have the blade removed.