The Detroit Medical Center has spent $1.2 million to fix issues with dirty surgical instruments after a six-month investigation found flaws with the sterile surgical processing, The Detroit News reported Thursday.
Hospital officials said systems have been put in place to ensure the safety of patients, according to the report, which comes on the heels of last week's discovery that DMC Children's Hospital of Michigan failed an inspection in January.
Crain's reported Thursday that Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute was cleared of infection control standards violations after a surprise state inspection on Wednesday.
Karmanos and DMC Children's Hospital failed earlier patient safety and quality inspections for conditions of participation in Medicare standards related to infection control and sterile cleaning of surgical instruments, according to March 8 letters to the hospitals from CMS.
Children's Hospital still faces a potential loss of Medicare and Medicaid funding if it doesn't pass a follow-up inspection, expected to be conducted before May 23.
Karmanos' newly appointed president Justin Klamerus, M.D., spoke with Crain's on Thursday about what happened that led to the multiple deficiencies in a Jan 30-31 surprise inspection.
"It was a human error issue, unfortunately," Klamerus said. "We want to be a highly reliable organization and when reviewers come in (sometimes) items like this are found. None resulted in patient harm."
