Crozer Burn Unit Cited on Hygiene

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

The burn treatment unit at a Delaware County hospital that bills itself as "a national leader in burn care,"has been cited by state inspectors for failing to follow required infection control practices, including compliance with basic hand hygiene.
In a 39-page report recently made public, the state Health Department also found that for years the hospital has been using the wrong liquid to flush hoses used in the treatment of burn patients.
Since 2006, the report states, hospital staffers have been using chlorhexidine instead of bleach to flush hoses in the hydro therapy room.
Although staffers were required to immediately decontaminate their hands after removing gloves between patient contacts, the state surveyors found that practice was not always followed.
"I witnessed a physician scratch his nose and scalp, put on personal protective equipment and then enter a patient's room," a hospital employee wrote in an email exchange.
The same employee, who was conducting a hygiene compliance audit, wrote that when two residents attempted to follow the doctor into the same patient's room wearing only a gown "I asked them to wash their hands prior to entry and they stated, 'We never had to wash our hands before,'"
Andrew Bastin, a Crozer spokesman, said the facility would be filing a corrective action plan by the April 1 deadline.
"Crozer-Keystone Health System is committed to providing exceptional care with an emphasis on patient safety. Routine inspections from the Pennsylvania Department of Health are a valuable way to identify opportunities for continued improvement," he wrote in an email.
In their report, the state surveyors noted that despite prior internal findings that the expected 100 percent compliance with hand hygiene practices was not being achieved, no action was taken by patient safety and a local governing body.
quality panels established to ensure standards were being met.
"There was no documentation of any actions taken by the local governing body with regard to the staff's failure to meet the benchmark for hand hygiene compliance of 100 per cent," the report states.
In fact the hospital's own audit records showed the hand hygiene compliance rate declined from October of 2016 to October of 2017.
As for the hospital's governing body, the report states that the panel "failed to ensure that the patient's right to care in safe environment was maintained."