Seattle Children's Hospital advised those who visited its surgery center to get tested for hepatitis and HIV after revealing that dirty surgical equipment may have been used on 12,000 pediatric patients, according to an article on the Outpatient Surgery website.
Up to 12,000 patients may have been exposed to bloodborne pathogens since 2010, the hospital said after discovering its surgery center was reprocessing equipment incorrectly.
The errors occurred during the manual washing of instruments, the hospital said. This is the second time in just over a year that the Seattle Children's Hospital had a problem with reprocessing equipment.
In January 2014 officials warned around 100 patients that a dirty colonoscope might have been used in their procedure.
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