A proposed class action lawsuit against Magee-Womens Hospital, accusing it of mishandling Pap smear reports, will proceed despite a finding by one group of only limited problems at the hospital's laboratory.

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Attorney Joseph Podraza Jr. of Philadelphia said a report done for the federal Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services does not address the key issue of the suit -- that the hospital missed high-grade cervical cancers in women who had faithfully undergone annual Pap smear examinations.

Those missed diagnoses "should not be happening," Podraza said.

Based on an announced Feb. 2 inspection, a team from the American Society for Cytotechnology reviewed more than 1,400 gynecologic slides processed at Magee from 1999 to 2003.

The team found problems, including one case in which a woman's high-grade lesions were diagnosed as "benign cellular changes/inflammatory changes." Also, of 178 slides randomly selected for closer inspection, the team said seven could not be found immediately, and a supervisor "failed to verify the accuracy of four gynecologic reports."

Magee spokeswoman Diane Lewis said some of the cases were temporarily missing because they were being reviewed by another physician. In another instance, the case number was not properly transcribed. Overall, though, she characterized their performance as "remarkable."

"When the examiners from CMS were in, they told our chief of pathology, Dr. David Dabbs, that our laboratory results were exemplary," Lewis said, adding that the surveyors agreed with the hospital's readings in more than 99 percent of the reviewed slides.

A Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services spokeswoman, who would not speak for attribution, declined to characterize the problems they found as either minor or serious. "There were deficiencies found, but if those deficiencies are corrected, the issue will be closed" without sanctions against the hospital, she said.

The centers' inspection is separate from a still-incomplete investigation by the state health department, started after lawsuits were filed last year by Drs. Kenneth McCarty and Susan Silver. Those suits, among other things, accuse the hospital of retaliating against McCarty and Silver after they raised questions about Pap smear procedures, including the practice of attaching physicians' signatures to reports those doctors had not seen.

While the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services review focused on examining slides, the state inspectors "are still gathering information, doing some interviews and getting further information about policies and procedures," said health department spokesman Richard McGarvey.

Also, unlike the centers review, the state health department team is interviewing McCarty, Silver and at least some of the patients who have filed suit against Magee since December.

"It may end up that our findings will be similar but until we're done, it's too hard to say," said McGarvey.