Local News in Brief : Cedars-Sinai Cited Over Use of Room

County health officials charged Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on Thursday with repeated violations over the last two years of orders to stop use of a room in which a premature infant died while undergoing surgery 2 1/2 months ago.

Officials acknowledged that the room’s use apparently had nothing to do with the fatal fire that was believed to have been ignited by leaking oxygen from an unknown source. The county Health Services Department’s citation said the hospital had continued to use the room for neonatal surgery.

Cedars-Sinai spokesman Ron Wise said the citation was blamed on a misunderstanding. He said health officials only told the hospital not to house patients in the room. Patients were not housed there and it was only used for corrective heart surgery on premature infants, he said.

Robert Karp, program manager for the Health Services Department, said hospital officials should have known the room was not approved for surgery.

Wise said the room has not been used since the infant’s death and the hospital is preparing to submit a use plan for the room that should end the dispute.