Issues with sterilization equipment prompted Los Robles Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to cancel procedures for several days beginning Feb. 19, according to a Feb. 25 report from the Ventura County Star.
The news outlet obtained a Feb. 22 email the hospital’s CEO, Phil Buttell, sent to employees stating that equipment used to sterilize surgical instruments was not working properly.
“Out of caution, Los Robles Health System has paused surgical procedures due to an equipment issue impacting presurgical sterilization processing,” Mr. Buttell wrote in the email. “Equipment has been affected at both main campus and TOSH (Thousand Oaks Surgical Hospital.)”
Union officials told the Star that operating room closures and canceled surgeries began Feb. 19. A spokesperson for the hospital, which is part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare, said the issue has since been resolved and that surgeries resumed Feb. 24. The hospital is working to reschedule affected procedures.
“We proactively addressed an equipment-related issue that impacted presurgical processes and have received new surgical equipment,” a spokesperson for the hospital said in a statement. “We will continue to adjust the schedule for certain elective procedures as needed to ensure the highest standards of quality and patient safety are maintained.”
HCA officials emphasized that the situation was an isolated incident and disputed claims from the hospital’s nurses union that unsterilized instruments may have been used on patients.
“This is a completely isolated incident,” Cassandra Jones, a regional spokesperson for HCA, told the Star. She added that the hospital was not ordered to pause surgeries by any regulatory agency. “No one shut us down. At no time was any patient harmed or put in danger.”
Becker’s has reached out to HCA and will update this report if more information becomes available.
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