Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield, Mass., may have been exposed to hepatitis, HIV from improperly disinfected colonoscopies, according to an article on the Fox61 website.
Between June 11, 2012 and April 17, 2013 the hospital performed colonoscopies on 293 patients, but did not properly disinfect the colonoscopes after use.
The issue arose after the hospital began using new colonoscopes, which had a different disinfection process thanthe one previously used instruments required.
A failure in training led to an issue in which “the disinfection of those endoscopes between procedures did not adequately expose the devices’ single water irrigation channel to high-level disinfection during the last phase of cleaning.”
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