I’m biased. That’s obvious. After all, I invented the UltraStream water alkalizer, ionizer and H2 infusion system. But I am (at age 69) constantly remionded of WHY I care for myself. My GP tells me I am genetically susceptible to bowel cancer so he attempts to get me ‘bare-assed’ every couple of years for a colonoscopy. Each time it’s the same. ‘Some forms that may become carcinogenic’. I can’t help being slightly suspicious of this repetitive verdict because as I see it, any growth in your colon can be described this way.
Anyway, I was not surprised when I got this report in my inbox.
Baystate Noble Hospital has notified colonoscopy patients that the scopes used in their procedures may not have been properly disinfected.
(My thanks to Erin Elizabeth!)
Springfield-based Baystate Health said Friday that because of a lapse in disinfection procedures, 293 patients who had colonoscopies at Noble between June 2012 and April 2013 are at risk of As Baystate explained the situation Friday, Noble Hospital began using new colonoscopy equipment in June 2012. The new colonoscopies required a different approach to disinfection than instruments used previously at Noble.
Due to a failure in training, the disinfection of those endoscopes between procedures did not adequately expose the devices’ single water irrigation channel to high-level disinfection during the last phase of cleaning, Baystate said in a news release.
Sterilization issues involving endoscopes used to look inside the body for various procedures have cropped up across health care in recent years.
In 2015, failure to disinfect endoscopes possibly exposed 281 patients in Hartfordto drug-resistant bacteria and was also implicated in the deaths of two patients in California.
The duodenoscope is different than the endoscopes used for routine upper gastrointestinal endoscopy or colonoscopy, according to the FDA.
In 2013, an Atlanta outpatient surgery center sent letters to 456 colonoscopy clients warning them they may have been exposed to HIV as well as hepatitis B and C.
That same year, study at five hospitals nationwide finds that three out of 20 endoscopes retained bits of “biological dirt” from past patients, putting people at risk for hepatitis and infection, as reported in the AARP Health Talk website.
This national concern led Baystate Health last year to convene a multidisciplinary team to assess the safety of endoscopes and disinfection processes throughout the organization. This team continues its work, Baystate said.
Ronald Bryant, president of Baystate Noble, said:
“On behalf of Baystate Noble Hospital and Baystate Health, I apologize to all those affected by this failure in safety. The safety of our patients is our very highest priority, and we take full responsibility for our part in allowing these patients to have potentially received unsafe care.”
Bryant stayed on after the Baystate takeover. His tenure as head of the hospital goes back to 2011.
Dr. Stanley Strzempko, interim chief medical officer of Baystate Noble Hospital, said:
“We appreciate the partnership of the Department of Public Health in identifying this problem and responding to it. We’re working closely with the primary care providers of those affected to By
Erin Elizabeth
(Erin Elizabeth is a long time activist with a passion for the healing arts, working in that arena for a quarter century. Her site HealthNutNews.com is less than 2 years old but has already cracked the top 20 Natural Health sites worldwide.)