Cleaning Error at UHNBC
From left to right Dr. Abu Hamour, vice president, medicine, Dr. Ronald Chapman, Prince George medical director, & Northern Health Northern Interior chief operating officer Michael McMillan
Prince George, B.C. – Northern Health says an error has been discovered in the pre-cleaning process for flexible endoscopes at the University Hospital of Northern B.C.
They say it covers the time period from 2012 until it was discovered last month.
Endoscopes are used for colonoscopies, upper gastric scopes, and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatogram (ERCP) exams.
The health authority notes they were not cleaned according to the manufacturer’s instructions and that a pre-cleaning step may not have been completed in all cases.
They say 10,000 procedures were conducted during that time but note the BC Centre for Disease Control has advised that the risk of transmitting a viral infection is extremely low.
Northern Health will be contacting patients who had one of those procedures during that time frame and has immediately corrected the error.
Comments
Yikes,,, extremely low, but what if someone has been infected , then what?
what! 10,000!! holy, a lot of letters and worries
10,000 and everyone they were intimate with…
Wonder how many people lost their jobs over this?
Ax, hope it was the guy who said there have never been patients stored in the hallways.
Wow, scary, but a few questions. If there is a procedure set out by the manufacturer, why was it not followed in all cases? Why did it take two years, if not longer, for the missed step to be brought to the attention of those who have the power to make a change? Looks like there will be a few job openings at the health authority!
There’s a blunder of epic proportion. Seriously lets think about this for a minute, your not going to have a procedure done for the “fun of it”, there is a “reason” it’s being done. Therefore the chance of cross contamination and secondary infection is of great consequence. Liability rests on the hospital regardless of the waivers signed before a procedure, this falls into the “gross negligence” classification. I don’t know why these jokers are a “teaching hospital” at all, they can barely keep the hospital “clean” let alone do anything else.
Considering the time span we are talking about clearly someone was “asleep at the wheel”. It is apparent that there exists some folks who don’t seem to care about their jobs and the responsibility and accountability that comes with the job. This is and should be a wake up call to administration and hospital staff to keep in mind they are working with people who need them and put faith in them to do a good job at what they do. Clearly by this slip and or oversight doing a “half assed” job is easy.
2013 Salaries.
Ronald Chapman $233,539.00 Expenses $19,450.00
Michael McMillan $222,818.00 Expenses $22,275.00
Just sayin.
wow cant follow cleaning instructions.
“Looks like there will be a few job openings at the health authority!”
This is not private industry, so do not hold your breath waiting for that.
Professional, I agree with every word of your comment. Now I am waiting for a letter in the mail….what good will that accomplish for me? Where does the buck stop? It is totally inexcusable! Unforgivable too! They are getting the super bucks to make sure that something like this will NEVER happen!
Don’t forget about the nurse with HIV giving needles and may have infected a little kid. Wonder how the kid is doing and what procedures the poor tyke had to go through.
Well I am waiting for my letter. when I had my scope done I had a blood borne disease as am sure many of the others that had a scope done. I hope they kept the scopes they shoved up from bottom separate from the ones they used for the top end. I hate the idea of eating shit. Yes heads should roll and not just the person doing the job but his/her supervisor and the supervisor’s boss too. Perhaps they should get rid of the tobacco cessation person and put their salary towards patient care and having someone to sit on the sterilization of instruments etc. I was a smoker at the time and I never got a visit from the tobacco cessationist. A kind nurse got me the patch to help me quit. I love her forever for that.
I’m waiting for a letter, too. It’s no joke having a tube stuffed up your anus – and now they’re telling me it wasn’t clean!! And isn’t it interesting that they didn’t tell anyone until AFTER they’d consulted with BC CDC. And also they’ve not said who’s responsible for the screw up.
Whatever happened to the HIV nurse?????everyone is sure quiet about it
Ben can you do some poking around?????
It’s a regrettable situation, but we also have to remember that we don’t live in a perfect world or one that is 100% guaranteed. At least Northern Health is coming out with the information.
It’s probably the fault of some low level medical technician(s). It’s unlikely that anyone will lose their job over this.
Well it is obvious that one or more of the many administrators at UHNBC were not doing proper audits/inspections. This sort of thing has happened many times at other hospitals in Canada and I can’t believe they let it happen here. I see they are grasping trying to cover their sorry asses by saying the chance of infection from the procedure is very small. Well they are not not wondering if down the road we are going to develop or have already some gruesome disease.
akanemo: “And isn’t it interesting that they didn’t tell anyone until AFTER they’d consulted with BC CDC.”
Of course they would do that. Could you imagine if they came out with this information and then followed up with, “And by the way, we don’t know how dangerous this situation is… sorry!”.
Northern Health does it again. We pay these people huge amounts of money only to find out that the taxpayers are paying for incompetence! As I mentioned before, Northern Health is top heavy in administration. What is our very expensive health system coming to?
JB:” At least Northern Health is coming out with the information.”
They are not doing that because they are so kind, the law requires them to take this action. This is not about improperly fixing a stove or a fridge! It is about endangering the health and lives of people, human beings, by not following proper procedures!
“It’s probably the fault of some low level medical technician(s).”
All technicians are required to be properly trained and properly supervised, period! Apparently it did not happen. Everybody knows that we are not living in a world that is guaranteed to be 100% perfect! We are talking about a manageable enterprise, a relatively small hospital in a relatively small town!
Wow. I had two scopes last year. Regardless of whether I’ve been infected with anything, this makes me feel ill. I’m supposed to donate blood next week. Should I be tested for things first? Perfect.
on the list as well .. wondering how they came to a specific time frame ? maybe it is a lot longer ? who knows, I would guess that those people in the picture could give a rats ass about the whole ordeal. A new year with the happy just taken out.
inexcusable!
Wow, I agree with everything “Professional” wrote. I too will be one waiting news. Thank you Northern Health for this casually announced error!
And these folks are supposed to handle any Ebola cases that come our way? Pretty freaking scary if you ask me.
Honestjoe I am afraid you may be right, but only as far as the admin, certainly not the nurses they go all out for their patients.
and people I am not a nurse
Not surprising have you ever walked down the hospital hallways there is junk everywhere!
PG: “All technicians are required to be properly trained and properly supervised, period! Apparently it did not happen. Everybody knows that we are not living in a world that is guaranteed to be 100% perfect! We are talking about a manageable enterprise, a relatively small hospital in a relatively small town!”
Calm down, PG. On the one hand you say that mistakes shouldn’t happen, and then you agree with me that there are no guarantees. Which is it?
Even with the right training and supervision, mistakes do happen in all fields, even the medical one. And Northern Health is not the first, nor will the be the last to make an error like this.
The fact of the matter is, we are healthier and living longer than we ever have. And we owe it in large part to the medical profession. No, they are not perfect. But nobody is.
PG: “They are not doing that because they are so kind, the law requires them to take this action. ”
I didn’t say otherwise. Please stop jumping to conclusions.
You do not read very well, JB! Perhaps you are working there. Why would anybody look for excuses for something that is inexcusable?
You are doing your usual fuzzification thing. Very predictable.
While I agree that mistakes can and will happen we should be learning from the mistakes of others especially if it in the same province. In 2010 Inland Hospital in Kamloops had to send 9000 letters out to warn people that the endoscopes had not been properly cleaned since 2008. I won’t post link-google it.
I can’t remember where but there was also bone fragments and stuff left on surgical equipment a few time at a hospital somewhere in BC.
Mistakes happen, but one would think these things would be caught before YEARS have gone by. That’s a lot of mistakes.
Does anyone know how the error was discovered?
Maybe they should stop getting care aids to clean the acopes
Written procedures.
Training.
Supervision.
Repeat.
Need I say more?
metalman.
Guess I better gets these terrible headaches checked out now!!!!!!!!!!! Heaven only know what I got now!! Northern Health will sure be getting a call from me in the morning!
PG: “You are doing your usual fuzzification thing. Very predictable.”
That’s rich coming from you.
It appears that the endoscopes were cleaned, just that they weren’t cleaned according to the defined procedure. Without knowing exactly how they deviated from the procedure we can’t know for sure, but it is quite possible that it was something not very crucial.
billposer a virus is so small it don’t need a place to hide
The equipment sterilization course is taught at CNC. I assume that these students would have done the hands on training at this hospital. Does this mean all these students were not taught correctly and are now throughout the province making this same error?
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