Sinai Hospital has agreed to pay a $60,000 fine for irradiating a cancer patient in the wrong place, while Constellation Energy paid $12,670 for muddying a mountain stream as it builds a wind farm in Western Maryland, the state Department of the Environment reported Wednesday.
The two cases were among 40 enforcement cases in which state regulators reported collecting or levying more than $500,000 in penalties in the past several weeks for air, water, radiation and lead paint violations.
The Northwest Baltimore hospital acknowledged in a settlement agreement with the state agency that a patient being treated at its radiation oncology center had been irradiated repeatedly over five days in February 2009 in a portion of the body not designated for treatment.
The environment department, which regulates radiation facilities, charged that the hospital had failed to adopt appropriate procedures and engineering controls to avoid such treatment errors.
A hospital spokeswoman, Jill Bloom, said the incident resulted from "human error" and the unidentified patient received a "limited amount of radiation" to an incorrect portion of the body.
"As far as we can tell, there was no lasting injury to the patient," she said, "but we are in the process of training staff and also purchasing some technology that will prevent those kinds of errors in the future."
The hospital spokeswoman said she didn't know any more about the incident. Nor could she say what equipment Sinai was acquiring to prevent other radiation treatment errors.
The settlement, reached last month, stipulates that the hospital will install electronic imaging equipment by April 2011, barring "unforeseen construction-related delays," and train staff how to use it.
A spokesman for the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said that the Office of Health Care Quality had only recently received a report from Sinai about the incident and was reviewing it to see if further action was warranted. The spokesman, David Paulsen, said the hospital was not required to report the incident if the error had not resulted in serious injury or death.
The fine paid by Constellation resulted from erosion problems that occurred in March when the Baltimore-based energy company began constructing the state's first wind farm on Backbone Mountain near Oakland in Garrett County.
The state cited Constellation for not having properly installed silt fencing and other erosion controls to keep mud from washing off the construction site when it rains. MDE spokesman Jay Apperson said "a significant amount of sediment-laden water" flowed down the ridge into an unnamed tributary of Block Run.
A Constellation spokesman, Lawrence McDonnell, said the company corrected the runoff problems shortly after they occurred, and the $140 million project is on schedule.
To see MDE's list of enforcement actions, go to: mde.state.md.us.