Screenshot: Google/HealthPlus Surgery Center
Over 3,000 patients at a New Jersey surgical center may have been exposed to bloodborne pathogens after investigators found the facility wasn’t properly following sterilization guidelines or cleaning medical instruments correctly.
According to CNN, an investigation into the HealthPlus Surgery Center in Saddle Brook, New Jersey by the New Jersey Department of Health found that 3,000 patients who’d been treated in the center from January to September 2018 could have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, and other diseases transmitted through blood.
A spokesperson for HealthPlus says the “risk of infection is low” for patients treated at the center, which offer orthopedics, pain management, and plastic surgery. But the center is recommending that all affected patients get tested for blood infections, which HealthPlus will pay for, given that the tests are done by recommended providers.
HealthPlus temporarily shut down after the September 7 report but reopened on September 28 “after undergoing a third-party cleaning and repairing of all their instruments, hiring new staff, and changing infection control and medication dispensing procedures.” Cool. Still never going there.