Quarantine at St. Anthony as 3 patients contract virus, expose employees

An outbreak of COVID-19 among patients at St. Anthony Hospital has led to the possible infection of three employees, the quarantine of 17 others and mass testing of everyone who works in the hospital.

The Gig Harbor hospital is restricting visitors and limiting inpatient admissions due to the incident.

The outbreak began with three patients who tested positive, according to a joint press release issued Sept. 11 by CHI Franciscan and the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

“St. Anthony Hospital notified, tested, and isolated staff and patients who may have been affected as soon as the first cases were confirmed,” the release stated. “50 hospital employees who may have been in contact with confirmed cases have already been tested and 17 are quarantining in accordance with public health guidelines while they await results.”

All hospital employees were tested over the weekend, authorities said.

The three patients were routinely tested when they were admitted to the hospital, according to CHI Franciscan. All three patients tested negative initially, then later tested positive.

“Public health investigations are still underway to identify the root of possible transmission and we continue to work together on contact tracing efforts,” the joint release said.

Visitors restricted

St. Anthony Hospital is now restricting visitors with a few exceptions and is also temporarily limiting procedures that require an inpatient admission. St. Anthony employees in the affected units were notified about the infections, and all employees are receiving regular updates, the hospital said.

“CHI Franciscan is working closely with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and the Washington State Department of Health as we continue to battle the very real impacts of COVID 19 in our communities,” said Dr. Michael H. Anderson, the chief medical officer of CHI Franciscan.

St. Anthony Hospital is following all public health recommendations, including several enhanced safety and PPE measures in place across the CHI Franciscan system to limit potential spread.

“The Health Department is supporting St. Anthony Hospital’s disease investigation to provide COVID-19 testing for anyone who needs it—patients, visitors, and staff,” said Anthony Chen, Director of Health at Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. “This is how public health works with partners like the hospital during outbreaks to control disease spread and protect people,” he said.

The hospital will continue admitting urgent care cases, authorities said. Patients should not delay seeking care if they are facing emergencies, such as symptoms of a heart attack or stroke, or injuries like broken bones, they advised.

Isolation rooms

St. Anthony isolates suspected COVID-19 patients by putting them in “negative air flow” rooms, which have been configured to allow air to flow in, but not out. Nurses and others who enter the rooms wear full protective clothing, including face masks.

St. Anthony, as a relatively new hospital, had the advantage of a design that allowed the high-volume air-conditioning, or HVAC, system to be quickly reconfigured to add additional negative air-flow rooms, said Matt Metsker, who directs resources for eight regional hospitals from Franciscan’s ”mission control” center in Gig Harbor.

It had also just opened a new floor, its fifth, in 2018, and thus had plenty of space for more beds. The $15.6 million expansion added 32 beds to what was to become the hospital’s surgical floor. With most surgeries now postponed, those beds are available.

The outbreak at St. Anthony follows a large one at St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton, another CHI Franciscan hospital, in August. In that incident, at least 70 infections were confirmed. A report from the State Department of health linked the cases to aerosol-generating procedures performed on asymptomatic patients by staff not wearing sufficient protective equipment.

The press release on the St. Anthony outbreak was issued at 5 p.m. on Friday, just as the weekend was beginning. No one was made available to take questions.

This story was originally published September 12, 2020 at 1:23 PM.