SoylentNews

Freeman [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/06/calif-hospital-staff-call-for-halt-of-surgeries-over-bizarre-particles/ [arstechnica.com]

More than 70 staff members of a San Diego-area hospital are calling for a halt of all surgeries at the facility due to unidentified black, brown, and gray specks on surgical trays, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported [sandiegouniontribune.com].

The objecting staff have signed a petition to spur hospital officials to pause procedures until the issue is resolved. But officials at the facility, the Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center, have rejected the call, according to the Union-Tribune. A spokesperson for the facility did not respond to voicemails from Ars.
[...]
Haynes added that management had assured staff that the particles—whatever they are—are sterile. Surgical equipment goes through a two-step process before use: a wash and then a trip through an autoclave, a pressurized steam machine used for sterilization. But Haynes argued that simply being sterilized doesn't mean it's fit for surgery.

"The fact that a contaminant is "safe" (not a microbe) doesn’t mean that contaminant is implantable," she said.

The Union-Tribune noted that the hospital's troubles seemed to begin last month when the facility reported a problem with its hot water lines.
[...]
Earlier this year, researchers at a Boston hospital reported on water purification systems in hospital ice machines inadvertently stripping out chlorine [arstechnica.com], leading to the deaths of three patients.

Leapfrog, a national nonprofit watchdog of hospital quality and safety, recently gave the Zion Medical Center an "A" grade [hospitalsafetygrade.org].

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