An overload of surgeries and increasingly complex procedures are to blame for a rash of contaminated equipment found at a hospital in Kamloops, B.C., earlier this year.
Sullivan Healthcare Consulting examined the cleaning and sterilization procedures at Royal Inland Hospital, and found that a combination of problems is to blame for the discovery of several dirty surgical tools in February.
The consulting firm was called into the hospital when about 300 elective surgeries were cancelled because of concerns about the cleanliness of surgical equipment.
In one case, a patient was exposed to potentially infectious equipment, and in others, bone fragments showed up on a surgical drill and glue was found on a surgical pan.
According to the Interior Health Authority, the consultants identified a ballooning surgical caseload, a lack of supervisors and increasingly complex orthopedic surgeries as some of the causes of the lapse in cleanliness.
The hospital's surgery case load has risen by about 15 per cent between 2006 and 2010. During the same time period, there was a 47-per cent growth in complicated joint surgeries.
In a statement, the health authority's vice president for tertiary services Joanne Konnert said the hospital is "committed to moving as quickly as we can, recognizing the issues we have experienced."
The report included 12 recommendations for improvement, including workplace renovations and a new system for delivering sterile equipment to operating rooms.
But the consultant's report doesn't address a suspected case of intentional tampering with surgical tools at the same hospital.
A separate Kamloops RCMP investigation launched in April into that case is still underway, Const. Cheryl Bush told ctvbc.ca.
"At this point in the investigation, there's been no suspects identified," she said. "But there's somebody out there who knows the information that we're looking for."
Police have described the tampering as "very obvious and intentional."
