Elective surgeries at Good Sam Hospital on pause for sterilization process review
Elective surgeries scheduled for this week at MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup have been put on hold after “foreign matter” was detected in the on-site sterilization process of surgical trays.
The health system, in a statement over the weekend, said the hospital “recently identified that some surgical trays were exiting our sterile processing system with foreign matter.”
Monday evening, Marce Edwards, spokeswoman for the health system, told The News Tribune: “One of the sources we have identified is labels that are on the outside of pans that carry instruments through the process. We found that some of them are degrading and getting stuck in the washer. The washer is the step before the sterilizer.”
She added that the investigation is still ongoing.
The issue first emerged a few weeks ago, according to Edwards, causing delays of some elective surgeries last week and later cancellation of elective surgeries on Friday.
The issue was detected before any of the supplies came into contact with patients, according to Edwards.
As a result, the hospital will continue to perform emergency surgeries. Elective surgeries will be either moved to other MultiCare hospitals or postponed to a later date.
“We have no reason to believe there’s been risk to patients. It’s important to know that the trays are sterile when they exit the processing system,” she said.
As to why emergency surgeries can continue, Edwards told The News Tribune on Monday that the hospital had enough non-affected supplies on hand “that we are comfortable proceeding with emergency surgeries.”
Out of “an abundance of caution,” she added, “we have canceled all elective surgeries for the week of November 18 while we investigate the situation.”
“All affected patients have or will be contacted by their doctor’s office to discuss (rescheduling) options,” she added.
This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 10:06 AM.
