Sign up for one of our email newsletters.
Updated 9 hours ago
A four-hospital Pennsylvania health system is scrutinizing the way its linens are cleaned by a company entangled in two medical malpractice lawsuits connected to the UPMC mold crisis.
Penn Highlands Healthcare, which has hospitals in Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties, told its workers it plans to bolster the inspection of linens laundered by Paris Healthcare Linen Services of DuBois.
“We are initiating a ‘Linen Team' with members from supply chain and clinical areas, who will help monitor and improve utilization and quality of linens,” a Jan. 31 memo to employees stated. “We are reinforcing our inspection process of linens upon and after delivery.”
Dave Trudell, Penn Highlands' system director of marketing and communications, told the Tribune-Review Thursday that administrators also conducted a site inspection of Paris on Jan. 30.
“Obviously, there's been a lot of news media coverage, and patient safety is our number one priority,” he said. “It's kind of like any recall in health care. We reached out to Paris and made sure they were following the agreements within our contract.”
Paris Companies CEO Dave Stern said in an emailed statement Thursday that customer tours are standard. Paris Companies is the parent company of Paris Healthcare Linen Services.
“As part of the regular course of doing business, Paris Companies has always encouraged its customers to tour our facilities,” Stern said. “This enables them to see firsthand how we process their linens. We have a long history of meeting or exceeding accreditation standards and regulatory guidelines for our industry, which demonstrates our ongoing commitment to quality and safety.”
Trudell said they haven't found any issues of concern.
“We feel like our linens are meeting the standard,” he said.
Pittsburgh attorneys Brendan Lupetin and Jerry Meyers represent the families of organ transplant patients Che DuVall, 70, of Perryopolis and Daniel Krieg, 56, of St. Marys in lawsuits against UPMC and Paris. The attorneys claim postoperative rhizopus fungal infections killed both men at UPMC Presbyterian and Montefiore hospitals.
Two similar lawsuits against UPMC on behalf of transplant patients who died after contracting mold settled for $1.35 million apiece. The family of an unnamed 47-year-old West Virginia man who died after postoperative complications from a fungal infection has not sued.
Lupetin added Paris as a defendant without objection from UPMC last month after he received a May 2, 2016, internal UPMC report regarding its linen supplier.
UPMC hired Andrew Streifel, a hospital environment specialist with the University of Minnesota's department of environmental health and safety, to investigate Paris Healthcare Linen Services.
As part of the investigation, Streifel inspected a linen cart delivered by Paris to UPMC Montefiore on Feb. 2. Samples showed “heavy fungal growth” of rhizopus on the “wet sheets collected from the UPMC laundry carts,” he wrote in the report. He also found rhizopus mold at the Paris facility and on its roof.
Streifel told the Trib he was surprised after his February 2016 inspection that Paris gained accreditation.
In a follow-up memo to employees Monday, Penn Highlands reminded employees to diligently inspect linens being used in patient care areas.
“Linens that are damp, visibly soiled or appear irregular are not to be accepted and should be returned to the vendor,” the memo stated.
Penn Highlands employs about 3,600 and serves about 400,000 residents in eight counties with 380 hospital beds, according to its website.
“We're always looking out for our patients and our staff,” Trudell said.
Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.
Our editors found this article on this site using Google and regenerated it for our readers.
