“Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s is a first class structure on the outside, but THIRD WORLD INSIDE.”
https://www.milwaukeemag.com/special-report-how-staff-shortages-are-undermining-care-at-columbia-st-marys-hospital/
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Special Report: How Staff Shortages Are Undermining Care at Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital
Dozens of doctors, nurses and surgeons are leaving Ascension’s East Side hospital, many of them saying it is an unsafe environment for their patients. A look inside the chaos in what had been one of Milwaukee’s premier hospitals.
Sterilization protocols require at least three individuals to confirm that a pan of instruments has been properly sterilized. There are also multiple indicators that surgical techs are meant to check before handing instruments to surgeons.
Such precautions did not prevent the unthinkable in February when one surgeon, while finishing a surgical procedure in Columbia St. Mary’s main operating room, discovered that most of the equipment they’d used had not been properly sterilized beforehand. A prepackaged, single-use cutting instrument was sterile, but all other instruments used in the procedure, including retractors and a camera, were not.
“I was shellshocked,” recalls the surgeon. “Part of our training is preparing for every situation, but I was totally blindsided. This never happens, not in developed-world hospitals. I had this feeling of total violation. Like I had violated my patient and like I had been duped and tricked, too.”