WESTFIELD (WWLP) – Almost 300 patients who received colonoscopies at Noble Hospital could have been exposed to HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Baystate Health said the colonoscopes weren’t properly disinfected.
Medical malpractice lawyer Matthew King said incidents like the one that happened at Baystate Noble Hospital aren’t uncommon.
“The medical community is obligated to use instruments that are sterile and in 2013, the Center for Disease Control identified problems with this type of scope,” he said.
Baystate Medical Center’s Dr. Doug Salvador said scopes are difficult to clean, which is why there have been several incidents. In 2013, more than 450 patients received similar warnings after getting colonoscopies at a hospital in Atlanta.
“There was documented transmission from a specific type of endoscope called a CRE scope, which is even harder to clean because of its attachments,” he said about another incident that occurred last year, when 35 people were infected from procedures in Seattle, Washington.
Salvador said hospitals are required to rigorously clean scopes between procedures. He said it’s a multi-step process of cleaning, flushing, and disinfecting.
“The reality is, they don’t need to be disposable,” he said.
The CDC says the risk of infection from an endoscopic procedure is rare: 1 in 1.8 million procedures.
Massachusetts Department of Public Health Communications Director Scott Zoback said that the cleanliness of medical scopes is an ongoing issue. He said similar issues have occurred with other types of medical scopes at Massachusetts hospitals as well, but didn’t specify where or when.
Zoback said as far as the DPH has heard, none of the patients who have been screened so far have tested positive for any of the blood-borne diseases. He said incidents involving the cleanliness of medical scopes stretch well beyond the Commonwealth.
