Controversy over reusing medical devices is not limited to single-use items, as officials of Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center learned this summer.
The 167-bed institution was cited during a June survey by the California Department of Health Services for 10 violations of state law, including four relating to its operating-room sterilization equipment.
The four citations involved not stopping the sterilizers’ use after problems surfaced; failing to notify the department about the sterilization problems; failing to make sure the sterilization machines were clean; and using the sterilizers to clean surgical tools as often as thrice-daily, rather than merely in emergencies.
A department spokeswoman said the hospital filed a plan of correction that was accepted in August.
Garden Grove spent $160,000 to buy four new sterilizing machines to replace the defective ones. Greg Harrison, a spokesman for Tenet Healthcare Corp., Garden Grove’s owner, said the key concern was whether the problem sterilizers affected patient safety.
“We contacted all the physicians (involved) and no one was infected. That was the most important thing,” Harrison said.
Garden Grove estimated that surgeries were done on approximately 1,300 patients from the end of February through May, the period when the sterilization issues cropped up. Harrison said the facility’s surgery numbers haven’t dropped since the sterilizer situation became public.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a private, nonprofit group that reviews hospitals, reviewed Garden Grove in conjunction with the state. After the sterilizer problems became public, the commission gave the hospital a score of 93 out of 100.
Dave Anast, publisher of the Biomedical Market Newsletter in Costa Mesa, weighed in on the Garden Grove matter in a July issue. Anast wrote that he wasn’t quite sure what was “more eye-opening or upsetting,” the fact the hospital had a sterilization problem, the commission accreditation or that Garden Grove’s commission score was in the top 39% nationwide.
“Unfortunately, that doesn’t say much about JCAHO review,” Anast wrote.
Commission spokeswoman Charlene Hill declined specific comment on its Garden Grove findings, although she said the group looked carefully at the matter.
“The hospital responded appropriately and took appropriate corrective action,” Hill said.
Accreditation is designed to keep hospitals in the system and make sure quality improvements are made, she added.
