The Québec Ombudsman received a report about Hôpital de l’Enfant-Jésus’s medical device reprocessing unit (URDM). The report described the failure to comply with certain sanitary and infection prevention and control standards. The Québec Ombudsman decided to intervene because of the potential risks of unsafe care being provided to service users.
Intervention
The Québec Ombudsman went to the URDM to observe the activities there and the medical device reprocessing zones. Reprocessing consists of disinfecting and sterilizing medical devices so they can be reused. This process is subject to standards that guarantee care safety.
The Québec Ombudsman saw certain failings, including the following:
- Staff and visitors did not wear personal protective equipment in the decontamination zone.
- Hand-washing rules were not always obeyed.
- When certain medical devices should have been removed a second time, the process was not always fully carried out.
- Certain actions by staff increased the risk of contamination between soiled and clean medical devices.
- The premises were not clean enough.
Recommendations
For the sake of safe care to service users, the Québec Ombudsman made ten recommendations aimed at compliance with the applicable standards for medical device reprocessing and the cleanliness of the premises.
CHU de Québec–Université Laval accepted all the Québec Ombudsman’s recommendations. The Ombudsman will see to it that they are implemented.
