Michigan regulators are reviewing whether to reopen an investigation of the Detroit Medical Center after a dirty surgical tool was intercepted before a surgery just one day after the state ended its investigation at the healthcare system, The Detroit News reported.
A laparoscopic grasper caked with old blood was marked as sterile and delivered to a Children's Hospital of Michigan operating room for pediatric surgeon Scott Langenburg, M.D., The News reported. The instrument was intercepted and replaced before it could be used during gall bladder surgery, The News said.
Reports of issues related to the sterilization of surgical equipment at DMC facilities first surfaced in late August in a series of reports, first in The Detroit News and then also by Crain's Detroit Business.
Since the first reports, the DMC has been investigated and it submitted a corrective action plan for health code violations in its sterile processing department found in an Aug. 29-30 inspection by officials from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, the state department that includes the Bureau of Community and Health Systems.
A state inspection report, released Sept. 15, covered employee and management training problems, lack of documentation and various infection control practices.
The Detroit-based health system passed a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services follow-up inspection on infection control practices at its downtown hospitals in October.
LARA officials notified the DMC on Dec. 22 that it was no longer in violation of eight health codes, The News reported. The next day, the dirty instrument was found at Children's Hospital, according to The News.
On Tuesday, DMC's for-profit owner, Tenet Healthcare, announced it was replacing CEO Joe Mullany with Anthony J. Tedeschi, M.D., who had served as CEO of the corporation's four-hospital Chicago market.
The DMC did not give a reason for Mullany's departure, other than to say he was pursuing other opportunities.
"Dirty instrument found at DMC; state may reopen investigation" originally appeared in Crain's Detroit Business.
