Seattle Hospital shuts down ORs after finding fungus
Hospital Safety Insider, May 23, 2019
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Insider!
Seattle Children’s Hospital shut down four of its 14 operating rooms (OR) this week after mold was detected last weekend, forcing the facility to reschedule or move dozens of surgeries.
A routine check discovered the Aspergillus mold, according to a Seattle Times report. No date was given for when the ORs could be reopened.
“Patient safety is our top priority, and we are taking this situation very seriously,” Alyse Bernal, the hospital’s public relations manager, told the Times. “All affected operating rooms have been closed and will remain so until we are confident that the areas are clear of Aspergillus.”
Aspergillus is a common type of mold that poses a low risk to surgical patients, but Seattle Children’s is contacting about 3,000 patients who underwent procedures in the past four months, said Bernal. People with weakened immune systems or lung disease could develop complications after exposure to the mold.
About 50 surgical procedures were rescheduled, moved to Seattle Children’s Bellevue campus, or will take place in other rooms on the hospital’s Seattle campus, the Times reported.
The hospital is currently working to figure out how the ORs came to have Aspergillus in them. Its cleaning protocols include using an antimicrobial cleaner after each surgery and at the end of each day and using air filtration to keep the ORs under positive pressure, Bernal said.
Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Insider!
Related Products
-
Hospital Safety Center
Improve compliance with hospital safety standards from The Joint Commission, OSHA, and other regulators with this...
-
Healthcare Life Safety Compliance
Created exclusively for healthcare facility managers, plant operations professionals, and directors of engineering, this...
-
Hospital Safety Insider
Stay on top of hospital safety requirements and best practices with our free, fast-paced weekly update.
-
Basic OSHA Compliance Manual Kit
Total compliance has never been easier. This one convenient package contains everything you need to ensure your outpatient...
-
Basic Dental OSHA Compliance Manual Kit
Total compliance has never been easier. This one convenient package contains everything you need to ensure your dental...
Most Popular
- Articles
-
- Don't forget the three checks in medication administration
- Practice the six rights of medication administration
- Note similarities and differences between HCPCS, CPT® codes
- Complications from immobility by body system
- Prevent dehydration with nursing interventions
- Know guidelines and subtle differences in code descriptions for laceration repairs
- Q&A: Primary, principal, and secondary diagnoses
- Skills of effective case managers
- OB services: Coding inside and outside of the package
- The consequences of an incomplete medical record
- E-mailed
-
- Performing a SWOT analysis
- Reimbursement for Facility and Professional Services in a Provider-Based Department by Gina M. Reese, Esq., RN
- Q/A: Infusions in an interosseous line
- Q&A: Querying for clinical validation of a diagnosis
- Q&A: ’Suggestive’ documentation could require clarification
- Hospital Billing from A to Z: 3- and 1-day rules
- Get to the heart of cardiac catheterization coding
- Don't bill 59025, 76818 separately without separate physician orders
- Documentation challenges for skin and dermatology coding
- Confusion Prevails Over M0102 and M0104
- Searched
