An anesthesiologist in Oregon has been banned because he may have given infectious diseases to patients in hospitals near Portland.
KGW8 says that more than 2,000 patients at the Providence Portland Willamette Falls Medical Center and the Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in the Portland area have been told they may have been exposed to HIV and Hepatitis.
Some of Legacy Health’s hospitals were affected, and the company said it would be writing letters to 221 patients it thought had been affected, according to the news source.
A third-party doctor hired through the Oregon Anesthesiology Group was to blame for the “breach in infection control.” There had been six months of care from the doctor at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.
The news source said he started the job in December 2023.
Legacy Health said in a statement, “As soon as we learned about this situation, we immediately suspended the provider and began a full investigation in line with the law and our own policies and procedures.”
The news source said that Providence told 2,200 patients at its Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center facility and two patients at its Providence Portland Medical Center facility about the breach.
The group also told KGW8 that the spread was caused by a doctor who is no longer working for the anesthesiology group. KGW8 said that when Legacy moved to a different provider, hundreds of surgeries had to be put off.
Neither of the groups gave any information about how the patients could have been directly exposed to the diseases. But Providence said that their patients were “at a low risk of exposure” to HIV, hepatitis B and C, and other diseases.
For extra safety’s sake, we are telling these people that they should get a free blood test to check for the above infections. If a patient tests positive, Providence will get in touch with them to talk about the data and what to do next, the company said.
“The safety of our patients is our top priority, and we promise that this issue will be carefully looked into and the right steps will be taken.”
Oregon Anesthesiology Group, the company that hired the doctor in question, said in a statement:
“Our patients’ safety is the most important thing to us.” When we found out that the doctor had broken infection control rules, we suspended him, told our partners at Legacy Health and Providence, and then started an investigation that led to the doctor’s firing.
“There was a small chance of getting an infection, but new rules and procedures have been put in place to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The Oregon Health Authority said they were not aware of any illnesses linked to the possible breach.
A statement from the agency said the doctor at the center of the scandal used “unacceptable infection control practices,” which put patients at risk of getting infections.
“Some people may be upset about the news of the infection control breach at Legacy Mt. Hood Medical Center and Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center. It’s important to know that Oregon’s healthcare providers have highly qualified and skilled infection preventionists and laboratory staff who lead the charge to stop healthcare-associated infections.”
