GREENFIELD — Patients at Baystate Franklin Medical Center are unlikely to have been put at risk by problems in following dialysis protocol at Baystate Health’s flagship hospital in Springfield, according to a hospital spokesman.
The hospital’s owner, Baystate Health Systems, informed 575 patients on Monday that they may have been exposed to pathogens while undergoing dialysis at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield between January 2015 and February of this year.
The issues involved failures to place proper signs on the door, table and back of the chair in rooms where patients must be isolated for staff safety, failure to use protective gloves and problems with enhanced documentation during dialysis. The situation came to light during a recent inspection by the state Department of Public Health.
“Out of an abundance of caution and in the interest of transparency, Baystate Health is notifying 575 patients who underwent dialysis treatments at Baystate Medical Center between Jan. 1, 2015, and Feb. 10, 2016, of the recent inspection findings and the very low associated risk of exposure to any pathogens,” reads a statement from Baystate.
The statement noted that the “deviations from protocol that were flagged” show “little or no precedent for the transmission of pathogens.” Patients who want testing will receive it free of charge.
Brendan Monahan, Baystate’s public affairs manager, told The Recorder that problem is thought to have been contained to the Springfield location, and it’s unlikely patients undergoing dialysis in Greenfield have been exposed to infectious disease during their procedures.
Monahan said Baystate Franklin Medical Center performs acute dialysis for those who are hospitalized and need it urgently, and while it’s possible some long-term patients may go to Springfield for dialysis, many probably go to a private provider in Greenfield.
It is possible some patients from Franklin County could have been exposed if they were sent to Springfield for dialysis, but Monahan said it’s unknown whether that took place at this time.
This is the second time this year that a state inspection has turned up lapses in procedure at one of Baystate’s hospitals. In February, Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield informed 293 patients who had undergone colonoscopies that failures in sanitization may have exposed them to blood-borne pathogens like Hepatitis B and C or HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
The colonoscopies in question were performed before Baystate acquired of Noble. Legal action is planned by a group of the patients involved.