Report prompts questions about Providence TB timeline
ABC-7 has the latest on the tuberculosis exposure at Providence Memorial Hospital, where more than 800 babies and 50 employees were possibly exposed to the disease by a patient care tech with active TB.
ABC-7 has been putting together a timeline of events related to the exposure, ever since receiving a plan of correction report from Providence and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Tuesday evening, in an attempt to understand why the hospital allowed the infected employee to keep working.
“I can understand exactly why that would raise a lot of questions,” Providence CEO Eric Evans said at a news conference last week. “I can tell you that the first time Providence was aware of any symptoms was in July.”
But according to the CMS report, more than 10 years ago, the employee had a positive TB test and chest x-ray indicating latent TB. Then around December 2013, the employee had not been feeling well and had a cough and fatigue while working in the post-partum unit at Providence.
“The December time frame was something that was not in our knowledge,” Evans indicated.
It wasn’t until July 2, 2014, seven months later, that an annual employee health screening revealed the employee was coughing up blood and was fatigued. That’s when the hospital’s occupational health nurse learned the employee was being evaluated by a personal physician, but had no definitive diagnosis.
“We knew of some symptoms in July,” Evans said last week. “We could and should have done more at that point.”
However, it wasn’t until six weeks later, on Aug. 15, that the employee worked her last day at Providence.
“Again, we could have done more in July,” Evans said last week. “But an analogy I use is: If you get your car certified and it works perfectly and the next day you get your windshield cracked, it no longer passes that inspection, but you’ve got the sticker, right?”
Six days later on Aug. 21, the employee tested positive for TB. Then on Sept. 4, almost a month ago, the hospital finally began coordinating with the health department to develop an exposure plan.
“There’s a lot of concern and there should be,” Evans said.
The Providence plan of correction includes auditing all employee health records for compliance and revising its policies, making it clear if an employee receives a positive TB skin test or has symptoms of TB, they will not be able to return to work until additional follow-up testing has been done and they are cleared.
The hospital also revised its list of symptoms of TB, which now include a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer, chest pain, coughing up blood, weakness or fatigue, weight loss, no appetite, chills, fever and sweating at night.
