As part of the Detroit Medical Center's cooperative agreement with the state, the medical center has agreed to hire a specialty consultant to oversee improvements to the facility's center sterile processing department and to address pending health code violations, according to Crain's Detroit Business.
DMC will reportedly pay for the infection control and sterile processing expert, though the name of the individual or agency has yet to be disclosed. Officials at the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs will have approval over the hiring, according to the article.
A DMC official told Crain's that executives are hoping to hire the consultant to reestablish public confidence that changes will be implemented to improve the cleaning of reusable surgical tools and equipment, according to the article.
Officials said they hope the agreement "builds on the long-standing relationship between the hospital and [LARA] in the pursuit of safe quality patient care, continual improvement of care, verification of perioperative improvement processes and to correct cited issues," according to the two-page cooperative agreement.
The DMC presented plans to address several health code violations in an hour-long presentation last week.
Last month, officials at the Bureau of Community and Health Systems, a department within LARA, and CMS launched an official investigation into DMC's sterile processing department. The investigation came after The Detroit News published a series of articles detailing 11 years of misconduct that led to the contamination of surgical instruments, among other issues.
The investigation found a lack of a "robust, consistent, repeatable, comprehensively documented and well-maintained training system" for new and existing central sterile processing employees, among other issues.