Lori Van Roosendaal-Thompson, whose mother went to the hospital for a gallbladder removal and then died, received a tip from a hospital worker that the facility was being investigated around the time her mother came to the hospital.
Ms. Van Roosendaal-Thompson requested a copy of the investigation report from the state health department, which shows the hospital’s OR was briefly shut down at the end of July after officials cited the hospital for failing to “provide a sanitary environment.”
The infection control issues, which were classified as constituting “immediate jeopardy” for patients, included unclean instruments, waste backing up in the drains and human tissue found on surgical instruments that had been sterilized.
Joel Hoffman, a state health department official, told KUTV that the hospital responded immediately and addressed the issue. The OR was up and running within a day.
Regarding the lack of communication to patients, Mr. Hoffman said: “At this point, we don’t have a way to get that out there. We certainly could, but at this point, we have not.”
Mr. Hoffman also said that the state health department is “not aware of any patients who were affected by this,” according to the report.
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