Health department releases TB testing numbers
ABC-7 received additional information Thursday on the number of babies that have been tested for tuberculosis due to the recent exposure at Providence Memorial Hospital.
More than 700 babies and 50 patients were exposed to a healthcare worker with active TB.
The first of the test results are now in and they are all negative for tuberculosis at this point.
Between Sept. 19 and Thursday, the El Paso Department of Public Health says more than 1,700 calls were made to the number 211 and nearly 500 appointments have been made.
As of Thursday more than 200 patients had been screened and 36 of those screenings had been read, revealing no positive results for TB.
As of Wednesday, the New Mexico Department of Health indicated they have tested 42 New mexico babies over two days, 26 at the Anthony Public Health Office and 16 at the Sunland Public Health Office. The number of positive results there are not yet available.
In addition, ABC-7 told you an inspection of Providence by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, revealed several violations that could threaten the hospital’s medicare funding in areas such as infection control, patient’s rights and governing.
Providence CEO Eric Evans indicated on Tuesday the hospital submitted an action plan to keep that from occurring and would make that public as soon as they received approval from CMS. However, it is still not available.
“When regulatory agencies see something like this where there’s an exposure, there’s a lot of concern and there should be,” Evans said on Tuesday. “what I can tell you is we believe we have a very comprehensive action plan, we believe that the steps we have taken make our hospital safe. We expect, fully anticipate, that CMS will accept our action plan.”
David Wright, the deputy regional director for CMS explained the delay.
“We’ve gone back to the hospital and requested they provide us with additional information,” Wright said. “They have until (Friday) to submit the additional information. Then we’ll complete our review.”
