Bremerton hospital fighting COVID-19 outbreak; 45 cases include staff and patients
St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton is struggling to contain a COVID-19 outbreak which has already infected 45 people, including staff and patients, health officials confirmed Monday.
Hospital administrators believe they have traced the outbreak to a single staff member who became ill Aug. 4, according to Dr. Michael Anderson, chief medical officer of the CHI Franciscan hospital network. Up to 30 other staff members or patients in three hospital units then contracted the virus.
No deaths have resulted and those infected are recovering, he said.
The 260-bed St. Michael, former known as Harrison Medical Center, is the only hospital in Bremerton. It has a satellite campus in Silverdale, which has not been affected.
Dr. Anderson joined Kitsap County and state health officials in a conference call Monday to discuss the outbreak.
Dr. Gib Morrow, health officer of the Kitsap Public Health district, said the outbreak was “a very serious situation and obviously very concerning.” But he said the hospital was cooperating with the county to institute heightened security and testing measures.
Morrow said the hospital promptly notified the health district of the first patient, which led to a recommendation for testing co-workers. Positive results then led to testing of two more units, which turned up more positives.
The entire staff and patient population will be tested “over the next few days,” Anderson said. Hospital staff have spent “long hours” contact tracing to locate others who might have been exposed, he added.
The hospital has been testing newly admitted patients from the beginning of the pandemic, he said, “which is how we determined that patients did not arrive with the virus.”
A team of infectious disease experts from the state Department of Health is scheduled to visit the hospital on Tuesday, said Dr. Scott Lindquist, the state epidemiologist for communicable diseases. They will consult with staff about procedures and make recommendations where needed, he said.
“Outbreaks in health care facilities are unfortunate events, but they are not uncommon,” Lindquist said. “This is not the first hospital that has had an outbreak.
“Usually when these happen, the hospital recognizes it, contacts the local health jurisdiction, which institutes recommendations, and that’s what happened here.”
For now, Anderson said, St. Michael is strictly limiting visitors and is not admitting new patients to the affected units, which he did not name. Everyone in the building is wearing masks, and contact among units is being limited, he said.
Anderson was unclear about whether some staff members who tested positive had returned to work. Some ”may not have fallen into a category that makes them ineligible to come into work,” he said.
CHI Franciscan also operations St. Anthony Hospital in Gig Harbor, which has not reported any infections among staff or non-COVID-19 patients.
This story was originally published August 24, 2020 at 5:14 PM.