By Barbara Anderson, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
Jul. 4–Saint Agnes Medical Center will hire more infection-control staff and aggressively monitor surgeries to convince state health officials that an outbreak of infections among cardiac-surgery patients won’t happen again.
The plan, released Thursday, is part of the hospital’s attempt to get its beleaguered cardiac surgery unit reopened. But it remains unclear when surgeries will resume.
Saint Agnes will not be able to do cardiac surgeries until the hospital is back “in compliance with state and federal regulations and the Department of Public Health reinstates the hospital’s special permit for cardiac surgeries,” said Ken August, a department spokesman.
In a written statement, hospital officials said they are “working constructively with the state to reinstate our cardiac program as soon as possible.”
The eight-page plan, approved by the state June 27, addresses only how Saint Agnes will prevent and monitor leg-incision infections related to cardiac surgery. Leg veins often are used to replace blocked coronary arteries.
An investigation of leg-incision infections led the state to shut down the cardiac surgery unit for six days in May.
Saint Agnes voluntarily suspended all cardiac surgeries last month, saying it wanted to do an audit of the program to ensure public safety.
The leg infections, however, were only a part of the state’s concerns about the hospital’s cardiac surgery unit.
A 54-page report issued last month outlined public-health and safety concerns of state investigators, including a lack of monitoring of new doctors.
The state has yet to review or accept the hospital’s plan of correction that addresses those issues, August said.
The correction plan for leg infections, however, lists several things the hospital said it will do to prevent and control infections.
Saint Agnes officials would not discuss the plan.
“We do not feel comfortable commenting on our specific efforts until our program is reinstated,” said Jaime Huss, a hospital spokeswoman.
Among the steps spelled out in the plan: hiring an additional infection-control nurse, and contacting all cardiac surgery patients who had surgery since January to ask them about any signs or symptoms of infections.
The plan also calls for unannounced monitoring of surgeons in the operating room to observe what they are doing to prevent infections.
“The department’s monitoring includes observation, staff interviews and clinical record reviews of randomly selected patients having cardiovascular surgeries,” August said.
The reporter can be reached at [email protected] or (559)441-6310.
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