Top Calif. hospitals struggling with infection control

Federal inspections cited five Orange County, Calif., hospitals nearly 100 times for infection control violations over the past five years, according to an article on the OC Register website.

The Register reviewed federal inspection reports for five of the county’s six biggest hospitals – St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, St. Joseph in Orange, Hoag Memorial in Newport Beach, Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo and UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. Fountain Valley Regional is the county’s fifth biggest hospital, but it hasn’t been surveyed since 1993 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which only investigate when there is a complaint.

The most common problems included incorrectly sterilized surgical tools and machines, and dirty operating rooms and equipment.

Other infection hazards included a dirty diaper on the floor of a neonatal intensive care unit and an operating room sink that didn’t offer a view of a clock to time surgical scrubs, to a nurse failing to wear a mask or gloves while treating a patient in an isolation room, the article said.

Read the article.