VA Hospital exposes vets to HIV and other nasties

General General Discussion
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More good news for vets :fie:

VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV

A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.

John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.

Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.

“This is absolutely unacceptable,” said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. “No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital.”

The issue stems from a failure to clean dental instruments properly, the hospital told CNN affiliate KSDK.

Dr. Gina Michael, the association chief of staff at the hospital, told the affiliate that some dental technicians broke protocol by handwashing tools before putting them in cleaning machines.

The instruments were supposed to only be put in the cleaning machines, Michael said.

The handwashing started in February 2009 and went on until March of this year, the hospital told KSDK.

The hospital has set up a special clinic and education centers to help patients who may have been infected. However, Carnahan said he feels more should be done and those responsible should be disciplined.

“I can only imagine the horror and anger our veterans must be feeling after receiving this letter,” Carnahan said. “They have every right to be angry. So am I.”

This is not the first time this year a hospital has been in hot water for not following proper procedures.

In June, Palomar Hospital in San Diego, California, has sent certified letters to 3,400 patients who underwent colonoscopy and other similar procedures, informing the patients that there may be a potential of infection from items used and reused in the procedures.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/30/va.hospital.hiv/index.html:

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Well at least no one will lose their job or anything.

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At this rate, it won’t belong before Barry allows Ebola patients to be flown in to our VA hospitals so they can infect them with that as well.

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Please…that would mean that he would acknowledge that he VA exists… :suicide:

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What I want to know is why handwashing the tools before putting them in the cleaning machine is a bad idea.

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I assume the germs on their hands get onto the tools, but it’s curious as to why the cleaning machine wouldn’t totally sanitize the tools.

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I hope none of these useless imbeciles loses a BONUS!

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Considering that Hepatitis B/C and HIV are not transmitted from hand to hand contact, if the article is accurate. . . . . Sounds like hype. I’d more likely believe someone else made some mistake and is trying to cover it by blaming the $10/hr employee for “breaking protocol.”

If they hand washed them without using a cleaning machine . . . . maybe, but still pretty unlikely.

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I’m thinking this is more along the lines of they hand washed them and didn’t use the cleaning machines for all the tools. Maybe I have a super OCD dentist, but I’ve not seen them reuse tools. Everything he uses comes out of a fresh wrapper. Could be that they outsource the cleaning and then get fresh wrapped tools though.

Im shocked the VA is still ****ing things up… NOT

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Something does not add up, agreed.

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I’ve been in John Cochran VA Hospital. As long as I have any health insurance to secure treatment outside the VA, I will not set foot in Cochran Hospital again.

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If used tools are not going straight into the cleaner and are hand washed before, they are probably contaminating every work surface in the office.