Noteboom The Law Firm

Tainted Colonoscopy Equipment a Wide Spread Concern

July 2, 2010 - To expect that any medical equipment that has been or will be used on you should be absolutely clean and sterile is not too high of a standard. Dirty equipment can easily spread disease and even cause fatal infections. Some equipment being dirty, however, is much worse than others; depending both on its function and level of contact with the patient.

The Murfreesboro, Tennessee Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital is an unfortunate example of patients being exposed to dangerous health situations due to used hospital equipment. Two years ago a doctor and a nurse at the facility discovered dirty colonoscopy equipment inside the hospital.

Last week VA Secretary Eric Shinseki visited the Nashville facility. Secretary Shinseki confirmed this was not a one-time or limited place occurrence. Shinseki went on to say this concern is shared system wide across VA hospitals, clinics, and medical facilities. To date, it has been confirmed the same problems arose in VA facilities in:

• Augusta, GA; and
• Miami, FL.

Shinseki's analysis concluded this problem was not the fault of a person not doing their job. Instead, this situation presented itself because of lack of proper standards being in place in all VA medical facilities. Following the investigation into the problem, more proactive procedures were put into place to make sure this practice does not continue. Shinseki cannot, unfortunately, eliminate the possibility the dirty equipment had been used on patients.

When the problem was first reported 2-years ago, 6,500 veterans were tested. Of those, 32 patients had either Hepatitis or HIV. While the VA is providing free health care to anyone affected by this situation, the dirty equipment should never have been used in the first place. Hopefully any veterans who did suffer from contaminated hospital equipment have received the proper care they required.