Eighty-seven former patients and family members have sued Centennial, Colo.-based Centura Health over a 2017 infection outbreak at its Porter Adventist Hospital related to orthopedic and spine surgical instruments, according to a Fox 31 Denver report.
Five things to know:
1. The lawsuit alleges orthopedic and spine surgical patients contracted Hepatitis C and other infections at the Denver-based hospital after surgery due to contaminated surgical tools.
2. The two-year breach could have affected 5,800 patients who underwent orthopedic or spine surgery during that time period.
3. The Joint Commission and Colorado Department of Health conducted an investigation of Porter Adventist Hospital's sterilization process for surgical instruments in 2017. The hospital waited six weeks before warning patients of the sterilization failures, according to the report.
4. Porter Adventist reported employees did not properly wipe down equipment, which led to the breach. There were 129 instances where the Joint Commission said instruments weren't sterilized appropriately in a 13-month period, according to the lawsuit.
5. In the lawsuit, former patients and family members allege the hospital violated both state and federal laws on reporting the sterilization issues. The lawsuit also claims the issued stemmed in part from under-staffing and that one patient died as a result of the infection.