After nearly 2 weeks, Bellingham hospital fixes water issue and is open for surgeries
The water chemistry imbalance at St. Joseph hospital in Bellingham has been diagnosed and fixed and, after nearly two weeks, the operating rooms are once again open for surgeries, PeaceHealth reports.
The hospital also reiterated it believes that, other than frustrating delays, patients’ health wasn’t impacted by the issues, which impacted sterilization of equipment and instruments in the operating rooms.
The hospital reported that on Sept. 2, that due to the water issue, it was forced to postpone surgeries for all patients except those who required immediate, emergent surgery who could not be transferred to another facility without facing a higher risk.
“The surgical services at PeaceHealth St. Joseph returned to regular operations on (Tuesday) Sept. 15 following a period of limited services,” PeaceHealth Chief Medical Officer and Chief Patient Safety Officer Dr. Sudhakar Karlapudi said in statement emailed to The Bellingham Herald. “The decision to limit surgical services in early September was driven by our commitment to provide safe, quality care at all times.
“The two issues identified as causing the disruption were: 1) steam chemistry, and 2) the balance between the water and a new detergent used for disinfection.”
Karlapudi said the hospital’s standards for high patient safety led to the decision to close the operating rooms so that experts could uncover the cause of the problem impacting equipment sterilization, which he said was seen intermittently.
“After a careful, step-by-step analysis of the entire cleaning and sterilization process, we identified the primary issues and they have been resolved,” Karlapudi wrote. “It’s important to stress that at no time did these issues directly affect patient care other than procedures being rescheduled
“We are able to know this with 100% confidence because of our stringent quality and safety checks built into the surgery and pre-surgery process.”
The hospital double checks all equipment and instruments used in surgical procedures before it reaches the patient, Karlapudi reported, “to ensure zero patient harm.”
The hospital also closely monitors data from after procedures are performed, looking to see if infections arise or if patients return to the hospital within a short period of time with the same problem, PeaceHealth Medical Group Vice President and Medical Director Jim Bochsler told The Herald in a statement.
“There has been no change in those data over the last quarter,” he wrote.
Sterilization expert Bob Marrs, who is a consultant with Beyond Clean and was hired by PeaceHealth to assist its own team, said he has seen “hundreds” of hospitals and surgery centers experience similar problems such as Bellingham’s during his 30-year career.
“This facility was proactive is stopping the line and ensuring that not a single compromised instrument was used in a surgery,” Marrs said in statement sent to The Herald.
The water issue delay did frustrate some patients awaiting surgeries not deemed immediately necessary.
Several area residents wrote The Herald about those frustrations, including one woman who said her 77-year-old husband was scheduled for an Aug. 24 knee replacement surgery that had already been postponed due to COVID-19.
In advance of the surgery, she said her husband needed to get clearance from his heart doctor, his pulmonologist, quit several medications, get lab tests, get tested for COVID-19 and schedule physical therapy and post-op appointments. He then was checked into the hospital, set for surgery and told it would begin in a few minutes, only to be told the surgery had been canceled due to a “contaminated tray.”
Making matters worse, she said their daughter had gotten time off work and flown to the area to aid in her father’s post-surgical care.
The surgery was rescheduled for Sept. 2 — a date their daughter couldn’t get time off for — and she said her husband had to go through almost the entire process again only to have the surgery canceled a few minutes before he was to be rolled in, again because of a “contaminated tray.”
“Twice canceled due to a ‘contaminated tray?’,” she wrote. “To us then, that seems unconscionable and unacceptable. ... While we understand that safety has to be first and foremost, we still feel that the hospital really let us down.”
Her husband also was supposed to have surgery on his back in October, but she said that likely also will be pushed back as he recovers from the knee replacement.
While Karlapudi said he understands that type of frustration, patient safety was at the forefront of making the decision.
“We will always put patient safety ahead of all other considerations, and although we understand, appreciate and apologize for the frustration and inconvenience the postponements caused, we feel strongly that we made the right decision,” he said in the statement. “PeaceHealth St. Joseph has, and will continue to be, an extremely safe place to receive care, including surgery.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 11:41 AM.
