Flies In Operating Rooms Force VA Hospital To Postpone More Than 80 Surgeries

CBS 2 Los Abeles ^ | May 1, 2018 | CBS LA

[bkopto]

This is probably an overblown finding by the media.

From the article:

We’ve obtained emails and memos showing the infestation goes back as far as November of 2016. This one titled “Phorid flies in the operating rooms.” It says that when spot treatments became ineffective, the ORs closed for terminal extermination and cleaning. We’ve learned the operating rooms at the veterans West Los Angeles Medical Center were closed a total of 22 days from November of 2016 through February of this year because of fly infestations that could jeopardize surgeries.

This is not what I would characterize as "overblown", but a real problem. BTW, I used to work in this hospital, on staff. It's not a place that I would want my care.

[mikrofon]

Lord of the Flies: "If you want your doctor, you can keep your doctor!"

[Rural_Michigan]

Exactly.

I’m an engineer and a hospital facility manager. The bugs get in despite every best effort of deterence.

Gasket the doors. Install bug barriers. Keep enough air changes. Use good infection control practices. Don’t allow cardboard or wood inside.

The hospital I work for had a cockroach crawl up the floor drain in the OR suite the other day. The same drain scalding hot water from the sterilizer discharges into.

[Rural_Michigan]

Right again, outofsalt.

ORs are not clean. Especially compared to actual clean rooms such as compounding pharmacies, cGMP cellular therapy labs, or other research facilities.

I wonder how often a typical OR gets it’s ceiling cleaned with lph or vesphene?

[catnipman]

well, at least they're not letting Junior Mints in (yet):

[outofsalt]

Our OR and many others are using Ultraviolet light to help disinfect surfaces. We have a gizmo that looks a little like R2D@ and it flashes very energetic UV pulses for half an hour every day after the cases are finished.
The OR’s are kept very clean and every patient is draped with sterile covers after being prepped with an appropriate solution of alcohol or iodine. In this country, things are really as safe as possible for the most paert.