The Alta Bates Summit Medical Center has been fined by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health for willfully violating safety protocols that put staff, patients and visitors at high risk of contracting infectious diseases. Ironically, this violation was discovered as Cal/OSHA personnel were investigating the hospital for another safety transgression.
This time, however, Alta Bates Summit is being fined $71,275 for placing 24 patients suspected to have tuberculosis in substandard airborne isolation rooms, failing to take measures for preventing potentially infectious air from venting into other areas of the hospital, which could result in others becoming ill with the disease.
Sutter Health has agreed to pay the fine imposed on its affiliate, but no specific deadline has been set as to when Alta Bates Summit will be rebuilding its isolation rooms. Located in the intensive care unit, the isolation rooms are housed in the hospital's old facility. In addition to the substandard isolation rooms, the old facility's ICU also lacks functioning toilets.
The newly-opened wing of the hospital doesn't have intensive care isolation rooms, so cases requiring isolation are directed to the old facility.
Given that Sutter Health has posted almost $3.5 billion in profits over the last five years, the California Nurses Association argues that there should be more than enough resources to guarantee patient care and public safety.
"It is unconscionable that Sutter once again demonstrated a callous lack of safety precautions that placed the health and safety of others at risk," said Zenei Cortez, R.N., CNA co-president, reiterating that the Ebola crisis has reminded everyone that it is critical for hospitals to be fully equipped to deal with infectious diseases.
The fine Alta Bates Summit has to pay is the highest the Cal/OSHA can impose for willful violations. This also an indication that management officials knew of the problem but did not do anything about it and, even worse, did not notify its staff of the possibility of an infection.
In the previous violation, Alta Bates Summit admitted a patient with meningcoccal disease but did not report the incident to local health officials and failed to notify exposed personnel in a timely fashion. This resulted in a respiratory technician and a police officer with the Oakland Police Department getting infected. The tech incurred hearing loss as well as other permanent injuries, causing him to be incapable of working in his position or holding a full-time spot. The police officer also sustained permanent injuries and was put on disability retirement.
Photo: Quinn Dombrowski | Flickr
