Dive Brief:
- Detroit Medical Center has submitted a corrective action report to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on how it intends to remedy infection control deficiencies identified at its central sterile processing and perioperative departments, Crain's Detroit Business reported.
- The infractions noted at DMC included lack of precleaning surgical instruments; lack of infection control training records and audits; mixing of clean and dirty gloves; and mopping dirty floors around cleaned equipment.
- CMS listed the deficiencies in a 13-page report based on an August inspection by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA).
Dive Insight:
The issue of hospital-acquired infections has received growing attention with the rise of superbug outbreaks, particularly following the high-profile controversy around difficult-to-clean Olympus duodenoscopes blamed for hundreds of infections and dozens of deaths in the U.S. and abroad.
Further, a recent Consumer Reports review gave one-third of 3,100 hospitals poor scores for their inability to control clostridium difficile infection rates, noting that 94% of C. diff infections occur in healthcare environments.
DMC's specific issues came to light after years of problems resulted in dozens of postponed surgeries, prompting an investigation by the The Detroit News which in turn led to the LARA inspection.
That inspection concluded that based on the infractions it witnessed, "DMC staff created a 'potential for unsatisfactory patient outcomes for all surgical patients served by the facility.'"
DMC will have to act quickly to implement its fixes given that in the next 60 days, LARA will return to perform a surprise inspection for CMS. If the results are unsatisfactory, CMS could take further action, which could go so far as to disallow DMC to bill for Medicare reimbursement.
DMC has agreed to work with LARA officials on implementing its corrective actions to address infection control and management oversight, Crain's reported.