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June 15th, 2010
02:10 PM ET
Hospital warns patients about potential infections
By Sabriya Rice A hospital in San Diego, California, is warning 3,400 patients who underwent colonoscopy and other procedures that they may have been exposed to potential of infection from items used and reused during the procedures. The hospital says some of the recommended steps may not have been completed while disinfecting the equipment. They believe the risk is low, but they are informing the patients by letter as a precautionary measure. (Read more here) Unfortunately, incidents like these are not rare occurrences. For example, a 2009 inspection of Veterans administration facilities found many did not have the safety procedures in place to ensure colonoscopy equipment was sterilized properly between patients. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention healthcare-associated infections or HAIs account for an estimated 1.7 million infections and 99,000 associated deaths each year. The National Conference of State Legislators and the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths offer state-by-state lists of laws pertaining to hospital-acquired infections. The Department of Health and Human Services has a series of fact sheets about four categories of HAIs in acute care hospital settings. In her column Don't Let a Hospital Kill You, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen offers tips to help reduce your risk of acquiring a hospital infection during surgery. Finally, Consumer Reports has this information on hospitals 10 states that are publicly reporting the numbers of central-line-related bloodstream infections in their intensive-care units and the Leapfrog Group allows you to compare hospitals on various aspects including infection reduction and medical error prevention. Editor's Note: Medical news is a popular but sensitive subject rooted in science. We receive many comments on this blog each day; not all are posted. Our hope is that much will be learned from the sharing of useful information and personal experiences based on the medical and health topics of the blog. We encourage you to focus your comments on those medical and health topics and we appreciate your input. Thank you for your participation.
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Get a behind-the-scenes look at the latest stories from CNN Chief Medical Correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen and the CNN Medical Unit producers. They'll share news and views on health and medical trends - info that will help you take better care of yourself and the people you love. Recent Comments  |
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It is unfortunate that so many,hospital- associated infections occur.
It is a tragedy that so many lives are lost.
It is also distressing to me to know that there is a very simple,cost effective method to decrease significantly the incidence of such tragedy.
I hope that Academia,will pay more attention to this option.
The more I read stories like this, the more I put off doctor and dental "preventative" visits. I never used to be afraid of getting blood drawn, getting a vaccine, and so forth, but so many studies lately show that workers in clinics and hospitals do not know the basics (such as to always avoid reusing syringes.) Not to mention the occasional case of someone purposely spreading disease to patients.
These kinds of things SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN....NO EXCUSES....What is wrong with people?
My husband went into South Miami Hospital in Mia, Fl for a minor operation on his blader. He seemed to be doing ok but was released early because of am impending Hurricane, Wilma, that turned out to be just a big wind. A few days later, I noticed he wasnt himself. I called his DR immediately and rushed him to Baptist Hosp in Mia. Turned out, he had MRSA and a detached retna in his eye ???(where the eye comes in, I dont know). After 3 days in the hospital, he had complete renal failure and was put on dialysis. 94 days later they sent him home to die. They failed to tell me he was dying. I thought if he was coming home, he was getting better. That was certainly not the case. In 94 days in the hospital, the DR who did the operation, only visited him once and that was toward the end of his hospital stay. I was told later that he was highly contagious. Yet, no one never told me not to hold him, or kiss him, or hug him. I tried to get an attorney interested, but no one would take the case. They killed my husband and got away with murder.
When are we going to start making corporations accountable for their action?
We need to prosecute CEO and fired employees that don't get it right. I don;t care if you been a great medical field employee for years, fuk up and NEVER work in the medical field again, of course after you get out of jail if you get out.
Might be harsh but get it right or at least no repeat offenders.
Hospital acquired infections are number one risk for a fatal infection when checking in or out of a hospital. You don't have to be ill to be at risk. Surgical site infections and just having a central line blood catheter creates vulnerability. Unfortunately physicians and hospitals are not leading the effort to stop preventable infections by implementing simple precautions nor is the industry transparent. It is difficult to discover which hospital is most dangerous with reporting delayed, often 2+ years, if at all. If we had inspection at least as efficient as we have for restaurants in place, many of these infections would be prevented, saving lives and money. Sadly, the health care industry does not want disclosure.
My late daughter was infected with Staph in 1997 during a routine biopsy procedure and developed a life-threatening infection that led to 7 weeks in the ICU on life support. The hospital told us that her infection was "rare" and an isolated occurrence.
I began to research hospital infections and patient safety in 1998 and I continue to work to educate the public about health care safety. To this end, we have non-profit organization at http://www.EmpoweredPatientCoalition.org. We have many free resources for patients including a patient journal, fact sheets and checklists.
We also have a patient reporting survey to capture medical events from the patient's point of view. We hope to provide people a means to stand up and have their experiences count. Our preliminary survey data is available on website.
I feel your pain Mrs. Stover. I had something similar to yours happened to my family. About 2 years ago, my wife went in for outpatient hernia surgery, three hours after the surgery they sent her home. She didn't want to go home because she felt that she needed to stay there for al ittle bit just in case. 5 days later she died of peronitis internal infection, what had happened is that the docotor who did the surgery had ruptured a part of her small intestins and she had an internal leak that killed her. I don't trust hospital or doctors anymore period.
Who, exactly, is responsible for the proper cleaning of this equipment in this particular hospital?????? Staff members are supposed to be properly TRAINED and have COMPETENCIES based upon proper cleaning/disinfecting/sterilizing the equipment that they work with. Those staff members who DID NOT DO THEIR JOB....should be fined and fired. THERE IS NO EXCUSE.....would they use a DIRTY probe/scope, etc. on their FAMILY MEMBER??? I THINK NOT....Who is responsible??? Techs? Nurses? NA's???????
mr. albert im sorry for your lost i have had two hernia repairs within the last four years. My oldest sister died a couple of days after she got her hernia repaired for other reasons then the hernia i hope some justice was done for you as like my family god bless you
In 2000 at the age of 33 yrs old, I went into a fairly well regarded NYC hospital for a routine lumbar lamindectomy. Within 4-5 days I returned to the hospital with a staph infection. I spent 3 weeks there, much of it with a 104 degree fever, and I was told weeks afterward 'they weren't sure I was going to make it.' I knew the risks of infection going into surgery, and made my choice accordingly. Although I'll never be pain free and my mobility is severly limited, I hold no resentments or regrets. I think it's a tradgedy when a life is cut short due to procedural mishap or lack of adequate protocals to prevent these horrible occurances. But, I don't hear of too many people flying off to Mexico or the Phillipines for too many procedures. It's tragic mistakes happen and more should be done to prevent, but I believe the US has the best healthcare in the world. Why are the best and brightest from other countries coming here to get their training? I for one, am not planning a trip to Canada for an appendectomy should the need arise.
I am writing to you to suggest looking at the increasing infection issues within hospitals, from a different angle. I have often wondered why hospitals do not require from their medical equipment rental vendors a detailed accounting of how they clean or test the equipment being brought into the hospital for use on patients. I have found that:
Vendors do not have adequate cleaning procedures in place
Delivery vehicles are rarely decontaminated
Vendor facility does not have proper sterile processing departments
Hospitals continually introduce large rental medical equipment, bed products, life support (ventilators) directly into the hospital without going through internal sterile processing departments or cleaning prior to use before it is introduced to the patient
Hospitals and Vendors continually rent obsolete equipment, infusion pumps, etc. without having any knowledge of the numerous times the equipment had to be repaired du to faults
Some vendors do not clean equipment prior to shipment to internal vendor offices. Resulting in risk to the the freight carriers and employee's receiving the equipment
This is only the tip of the iceberg. How can this be? and Why isn't anybody looking at this obvious problem?
I'm sure the nation would be interested in these facts and at a minimum to be made aware of the equipment the hospitals are using on their loved ones and the potential risk.
I still wish to know where is JCAHO and OSHA in all of this????? Are they checking to see that procedures are being followed??? That's what they do.......so who's minding the store??? I am a health care professional and I FOLLOW ALL MANUFACTURER'S GUIDELINES IN CLEANING/DISINFECTING/STERILIZING ALL REUSABLE MEDICAL EQUIPMENT........and.......am OBSERVED DOING SO VARIOUS DISCIPLINES to make sure I'M FOLLOWING POLICY/PROCEDURE TO THE "T"......how can these people NOT clean the equipment??? would you allow these equipment to be used on YOUR FAMILY or YOURSELF after NOT being cleaned, etc. properly??? THAT'S TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE, UNPROFESSIONAL, UNETHICAL and those responsible should be disciplined.....I wonder if the DOCTOR's RUSH those who do clean the equipment to "HURRY UP I HAVE ANOTHER CASE" and force this malpractice.......hmmmmmmm....I seen that too....BUT WOULD NOT AND DO NOT CAVE IN.....I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT I DO THE "RIGHT THING" as I mentioned above.
I and my husband had colonoscopies done last year as routine preventative maintainance. A few weeks later we got notified that they somehow were not following the manufacturer's instructions on how long to sterilize the equipment. They had been going with ONE MINUTE cleaning instead of the required FIVE MINUTES!!! Now I don't know anything at all about the process but having to return to a lab for various tests now, HIV, HEP C etc. scared me to death! One test came back iffy and had to do more. This was a nightmare! At the same time we had Dr. Dasai and his crew reusing syringes and doing 6 minute colonoscopies. He was well known for his speed amongst his peers even though it should take 30 minutes to do correctly. He is having his license revoked and still having more litigation going on. Luckily for me, I finally came back with a clean bill of health. I tell you, it will be quite awhile before I have any work done here in Las Vegas ever again. Medical care here is pretty close to voodoo medicine. You take your life in your hands. Be warned!