Hospital Used Contaminated Testing Gear

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A Pennsylvania hospital used contaminated gear for on internal test on an unsuspecting patient, according to a report from the state health department.
The report on Forbes Hospital, the second critical one to be released on the hospital in a matter of days, states that the same endoscope was used on a second patient without having been properly cleaned and processed.
In addition the state surveyors found that the incident was not "thoroughly investigated." The report states the facility "failed to ensure infection prevention processes were followed to prevent the potential contamination," the report states.
"Because of the foreign object inside the scope, the scope should be considered contaminated," the state health surveyors wrote in the report. The report does not indicate whether or not the patient exposed to the contaminated instrument was later found to be infected. A review of hospital records showed a letter informing the patient of what happened was not sent until Oct. 28, more than a week after the error was discovered.
In addition to the problem with the endoscope the inspectors found that a filter on equipment used in the cleaning process for storage of the endoscope had not been replaced at the proper intervals.
In fact, the report states, a worker who used the equipment was not even aware that it had a filter.
The hospital did not file an acceptable plan of correction and hospital officials did not respond to questions about the Oct. 20 incident.
In another recent report the 171-bed Monroeville hospital was faulted for letting a Covid-19 positive wait two hours in an emergency room before being seen.
Hospital officials did not respond to a request for comment.
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