Probe continues in Gig Harbor hospital COVID-19 outbreak; 4 workers in quarantine
Story updated Sept. 18
In updates this week, representatives for CHI Franciscan said that full test results are still pending after a COVID-19 outbreak at its St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor.
On Sept. 11 the health system reported that three patients had tested positive after initial negative test results, leaving workers vulnerable to exposure at the hospital between Aug. 20 and Sept. 3.
On Sept. 18, CHI Franciscan said the positive cases seen thus far were limited to the three patients and three staff members.
No additional patients have tested positive on the affected floor of the hospital. Four employees are in quarantine and will likely return to work by mid-week next week, according to a hospital representative.
All staff, vendors, contractors and any other employees who entered the hospital during the identified timeframe were to be tested.
More than 1,000 tests have been run so far, with 31 remaining results still pending as of Sept. 18.
The hospital’s latest update said it was resuming scheduling of procedures that require an inpatient admission, which had been paused at the start of the investigation.
“Visitor restrictions remain in place at this time, with a few exceptions for beginning of life and end of life. St. Anthony employees in the affected units were notified about the infections, and all employees of St. Anthony Hospital have been notified, tested, and receive regular updates from the hospital,” according to the hospital’s Sept. 18 update.
The hospital noted public health investigators were still trying to identify the source of possible transmission and continued working with the health department on contact tracing efforts.
An earlier update was provided Wednesday by Cary Evans, vice president for communications and government affairs for the health system.
According to Evans in that update: “We follow CDC guidance, which says if employees have been exposed to an individual known to be infected for 15 minutes or more, and the health care worker is not wearing the appropriate PPE, mask and eye wear, then they fall into a category of higher risk and they will be sent home to quarantine.”
A media representative further clarified that lack of PPE in such cases could arise when a patient is not thought to be COVID-positive, as was the case with the patients’ initial negative tests.
UFCW21 officials and workers at St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton represented by the union warned in late August of potential outbreaks in the health system after St. Michael experienced its own, larger COVID-19 outbreak.
The Kitsap Public Health District said Sept. 11 that three patient deaths had been tied to the St. Michael outbreak, two of them from Kitsap County. The residence of the third person who died has not been identified by either the health system or Kitsap Health District.
In total, 73 primary cases have been linked to the outbreak, according to the Kitsap district’s report.
That outbreak also was tied to confirmed cases in several counties, including Clallam, Grays Harbor, Jefferson, King, Mason and Pierce.
When asked for more details on the St. Anthony outbreak, Dale Phelps, who leads COVID-19 communications for the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, told The News Tribune on Tuesday: “The health department does not plan to issue an update beyond what was in the release from St. Anthony last Friday.”
He added that the hospital “doesn’t meet our 10 cases/30 beds threshold for reporting on the list we issue on Wednesdays.”
That list on the department’s COVID-19 tracking dashboard offers updated counts on cases at congregate care facilities each Wednesday.
St. Anthony saw the earliest cases of COVID-19 in March when the pandemic first appeared in Pierce County.
This story was originally published September 17, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
