Friday, January 18, 2013

Hospital Reuses Insulin Pens After Being Told Not to do S

Amazing. Amazingly stupid?

The Food and Drug Administration warned hospitals nationwide against reusing insulin pens on multiple patients in March 2009, 19 months before the Buffalo VA Medical Center began a practice that could have prompted its nurses to do that very thing.

What’s more, the hospital continued running the risk of spreading deadly viruses through those insulin pens for more than two years until last Nov. 1, despite a January 2012 alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reiterating the FDA’s earlier warning.

News of the government warnings – and the Buffalo VA’s apparent ignorance of them – only further infuriated members of Congress who are concerned that the faulty nursing practice could have exposed upwards of 716 patients at the local hospital to HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C.

http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130117/CITYANDREGION/130119229/1002