LOUISVILLE — Federal administrators have threatened to end Medicaid and Medicare payments to a hospital here beginning July 18 because of “serious deficiencies” in the way staff handled the recent fatal overdose of a teen-age patient.

        In a report sent to the Ten Broeck mental health center earlier this week, federal administrators said that some of the facility's nurses weren't trained in basic CPR and didn't know how to use emergency medical equipment.

        Shawn Smith, 18, of Brooksville suffocated on his vomit June 9 after a drug overdose while a patient at Ten Broeck.

        A Ten Broeck spokesman on Friday disputed some of the findings and said the facility plans to correct any problems that threaten its ability to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.

        Richard James, chief of survey and certification for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the region that includes Louisville, said if Ten Broeck officials provide sufficient evidence that they have corrected the problems before the July 18 deadline, federal officials may revisit the hospital.

        Two-thirds of the 94-bed facility's patients receive Medicaid or Medicare — the federally funded programs that pay for health-care services to low income and elderly people who qualify.

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