8/12/2009

Hospital cited over infections


California health regulators have cited White Memorial Medical Center for failing to properly sterilize a medical instrument later implicated in a deadly bacterial outbreak in the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.

White Memorial, near downtown Los Angeles, closed its busy neonatal intensive care unit last month after identifying an outbreak of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which sickened five babies. Two of the babies are believed to have died as a result. The neonatal unit subsequently reopened.

In a report made public Tuesday, inspectors from the California Department of Health Services criticized the way the respiratory therapy staff at White Memorial cleaned laryngoscope blades, which are used to insert breathing tubes. The blades were cleaned with soap, tap water and alcohol wipes, which was not in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations to sterilize them, the report said.

The hospital's director of risk management and infection control told inspectors that "the practice was unapproved, and there was no training, no competency and no monitoring of the procedure," the report said.

In a written statement, White Memorial said that the inspection report "simply confirms the hospital's preliminary findings."

The hospital said it has worked closely with Los Angeles County public health officials and outside experts, and it has ensured that all hospital departments are following policies related to cleaning of medical equipment.

White Memorial said there had been no new infections since officials identified the problem in early December.

P. aeruginosa is a common bacterium found in water and soil and can be spread through body contact, fluids and water. In most people, it is not deadly or even dangerous, because their immune systems can ward off infection.

But that is not the case in patients with weakened immune systems, such as premature babies, patients with cancer or AIDS and those on breathing machines.

In such situations, the bacterium can cause a variety of infections depending on where it enters the body. These include respiratory, urinary tract and blood infections.

It can spread rapidly and, in some cases, be unstoppable even with antibiotics.

In addition to the neonatal unit, White Memorial closed its pediatric intensive care unit for several days last month after two children were diagnosed with Pseudomonas infections. Those cases were later determined to be unrelated to the outbreak and the unit reopened.

11 comments:

  1. The anesthesia machine, usually cared by the anesthesiologists or nurse anesthetists, is needed during surgery to provide a continuous-flow of medical gases to keep the patient from regaining consciousness.

    moist wipes

    ReplyDelete
  2. Keeping machines and equipment clean is essential in almost any industry. Medical equipment needs to be thoroughly cleaned and sterilized in order to be reused. These items need to be kept clean at all times as bacteria can easily find its way to medical equipment; leading to the spread of infection and disease. There are standard techniques for properly cleaning medical equipment. The proper cleaning of medical instruments involves three phases: the initial cleaning, disinfecting and sterilization. Since most instruments are reused, it is vital that all three phases should be carried out thoroughly.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also have heard this news. It was a very sad one. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa virus attacked the babies in the hospital and few got die also.:-( May God protect us from these dangerous viruses.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is a scary post. Not that it is not good, just that i will be skeptical of hospitals the next time i visit them. Hospitals should opt better practices.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Its a very awesome site with lots of amazing content.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is a responsible task, to share such wonderful site to everyone
    Hola VPN

    ReplyDelete
  7. The free google play code are the very amaizng feature for the android google play store user as to get the amazing deals on the purchase of the apps and games to avail the best discount offes the google play codes are used.

    ReplyDelete