Providence Santa Rosa (Calif.) Memorial Hospital has diverted or paused nearly all elective surgeries in the last week due to concerns about the water used in sterilizing instruments, the Press Democrat reported Oct. 24.
The 277-bed facility is partnering with sister hospitals in the region to sterilize equipment in the meantime, according to the outlet.
Issues began Oct. 17 and were still not resolved as of late Oct. 24. In comments to the Press Democrat, Providence leadership confirmed two machines in its Sterile Processing Department were the source of the issue.
However, testing of the equipment by an independent source did not return abnormal results. These results were also verified by a third-party company, which confirmed the same, a hospital spokesperson stated.
"As soon as we discovered this issue, we halted the use of this equipment and notified internal and external agencies…" a Providence spokesperson told the outlet. "All sterilization equipment is properly functioning and is meeting safety standards."
While the testing did not return abnormal results, it was unclear Oct. 25 if all normal surgical procedures and operations at Providence Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital had resumed.
The cause of the initial concern has not been identified at this time. However, prior to the event, the Press Democrat reported that hospital staff members had contacted the Sonoma County Department of Health Services expressing concerns over the hospital's sterilization equipment.
Sal Rosselli, president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, told the news outlet that the hospital "continues to profit while failing to adequately invest in the physical upkeep of the hospital and the staffing necessary to provide the best care for patients in Sonoma County."
"Patient safety and clinical excellence are, and have always been, our top priorities," a hospital spokesperson wrote. "At Providence Santa Rosa Memorial, we encourage everyone — regardless of their role — to speak up if there is an issue that needs to be addressed, as we want to resolve any issue as quickly as possible."
Becker's reached out to Providence Santa Rosa Memorial to request additional information and received the following statement from a spokesperson: "As a highly reliable organization, we are conducting multiple layers of time intensive testing and review to address the current situation with our sterilization process. As the region’s only Level II trauma center, our focus remains on ensuring we can support emergent and urgent surgical cases and are accommodating non-emergency cases as resources allow. Every morning, we review our capabilities and the surgical schedule. We continue to communicate to the appropriate teams what we can accommodate by 11 a.m. each day for the following day. We’ve been partnering with our Ambulatory Surgery Center, sister hospitals and other local resources to continue to sterilize equipment used for emergencies/urgent cases. The sterile processing department continues to inspect instruments carefully. They have implemented a new process that is improving results. A team of experts from a surgical instrument company will be on-site to assess and refurbish our instruments this week. With their help, we will evaluate all instruments and will replace those that cannot be safely refurbished."