Baltimore-owned health clinic has broken A/C, ruined test kits, past mummified rat, IG finds

Sweltering heat, rodents, and damaged test kits are among the issues that have plagued a health clinic that Baltimore City operates. 

A new report by Baltimore's Inspector General finds some of those issues have not been corrected for years, wasting taxpayer money and endangering patients and employees.

The clinic is located at 1515 W. North Avenue in the same community where a mass overdose of at least 27 people unfolded last week.    

Inspector General on the case 

"Ensuring the citizens of Baltimore have the services their tax dollars are paying for—that has to become a priority because this is the third time we have done this," Baltimore City Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren. 

Cumming's team made another surprise inspection of the city-owned Druid clinic on June 24 and found sweltering temperatures inside.

Pictures show thermostats in the 80s.

"The employees were working in dangerous heat conditions," Cumming said. "They all had to move out of their own offices into the center of the building because that's where it was cooler."

Cumming found the heat-ruined test kits in the sexual health clinic. Some HIV samples cannot be safely kept at temperatures higher than 80 degrees. Hepatitis C kits were also affected, according to Cumming. 

"That was in a health clinic. We can't do this," the inspector general said. "We have to be better."

Past inspections found dead insects.

A rat—seen in the window in 2020–was still there when Cumming's team went back almost two years later. 

"It was incredibly shocking. The same rat—it had become mummified," Cumming said. 

Patients react to the conditions

A patient who declined to give her name said it was hot in the clinic on Thursday 

Enrique Gonzalez told WJZ Investigates he is a former patient there. 

"The upstairs former STD clinic was pretty hot," Gonzalez remembered. "It's pretty normalized in Baltimore City, and it's a tragedy to say that, but I'm not even surprised hearing that."

"When I went there, conditions were bad," former patient Philip Coleman said. "I said, 'No, I wouldn't go back anymore.' It gets very hot in that building, and you wouldn't believe it would be that hot in that building."

Baltimore City's response 

Baltimore's health department responded and acknowledged "heating and cooling fluctuations are an ongoing issue" and wrote they are "committed to ensuring the comfort and safety of patients and staff." 

The department says they have new procedures in place since the inspector general's visit and claimed they have fixed the air conditioning issues. 

The health department also said they are working also plan to relocate the clinic to a newly renovated building, but that is a year and a half to two years away. 

Cumming promised to follow up. 

"We are the people's watchdog, and they are the ones reporting to this office how bad the conditions are," Cumming said. "And we're not going away."