UCHealth Under Fire After Inspectors Discover Contaminated Surgical Equipment

By: Erin Keller | The Independent

The hospital had to take drastic steps after the incident

State inspectors have revealed that UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital’s week-long shutdown of nonemergency surgeries came after they found dozens of contaminated surgical instruments caked with dried blood and tissue around the facility.

In July, inspectors uncovered a massive backlog of uncleaned tools, prompting the hospital to halt all nonemergency surgeries from July 16 to July 25 while safety violations were addressed.

The inspection, triggered by a formal complaint, found 17 stainless steel carts in the hospital’s sterile processing department (SPD) bearing between 11 and 30 trays of dirty surgical instruments each.

Additional carts were discovered in a holding room near the operating suites and in a hallway, with hundreds of trays left “open to air and heavily soiled with dried blood and tissue,” inspectors wrote, according to The Colorado Sun.

The state regulator classified the situation as an “immediate jeopardy” finding, indicating that patients faced imminent harm unless corrective measures were implemented quickly.

UCHealth spokesperson Kelli Christensen told The Sun that the hospital’s SPD had been operating at reduced capacity, leading to postponed or relocated elective surgeries.

The hospital worked closely with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to address the violations, a spokesperson added.

“We issued a deficiency at an immediate jeopardy level, which required the facility to develop an immediate and long-term plan to correct any violations,” CDPHE spokesperson Alexandrea Kallin told The Sun this week.

The backlog emerged amid the opening of new operating rooms, which dramatically increased the SPD’s workload.

Before expansion, the hospital estimated needing 65.2 full-time equivalent staff. After expansion, the need rose to 85.2 full-time equivalent staff. Inspectors found no evidence that staffing had increased to meet this demand.

At times, instruments went unsterilized for more than 24 hours, but technicians told investigators that the delays could stretch up to six days.

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