Mayo-Franciscan charts surgeries after huge restocking of sterile supplies

March 27--The dust has cleared at Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare, allowing the La Crosse hospital to resume surgeries that had been suspended because of potential contamination of sterilized equipment.

Surgeries resumed at five to seven a day this week, rising to the upper teens Thursday and expected to approach 20 today, chief administrative officer Joe Kruse said during a press conference and tour of the facility Thursday.

The 7,000-square-foot sterile processing distribution room, which houses multiples of 3,700 pieces of equipment in the bowels of the hospital, has been cleaned and restocked with new surgical supplies.

A cleaning procedure is suspected of causing the dust, although a gasket on a light fixture also was found to have deteriorated, Kruse said. Hospital staffers also replaced fixtures for 120 lights with more efficient LED devices in the highly restricted room, he said.

As a precautionary measure, hospital officials pulled the plug on surgeries and sent some surgical patients to other hospitals after the dust was discovered last week, Kruse said.

"We chose the difficult path of stopping surgery for patient safety," Kruse said, although there was no danger to patients or staff.

Mayo-Franciscan normally schedules between 25 and 40 surgeries a day, said Dr. David Rushlow, the hospital's chief medical officer.

Surgeries now are being slated on a day-by-day basis, depending on their complexity, Rushlow said. Common operations are being done now, while it may be a week or two before more complicated procedures will be scheduled, he said.

During the surgery stoppage, Mayo-Franciscan has sent some patients and trauma cases to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and other area hospitals, including Gundersen Health System, Rushlow said.

"There are various reasons that happens," he said, adding that the hospitals have collaborated to establish pathways to provide continuity of care when an incident occurs.

Gundersen confirmed the cooperation, with senior vice president Deb Rislow saying Thursday, "Gundersen is committed to providing exceptional care for all -- our patients, their families, their friends and our neighbors. It is our responsibility to help in times of great need."

When Mayo-Franciscan staffers discovered the dust, Kruse said, "It took a little while to get our bearings. ... It was really complex, and it was hard to think about what to do and be sure we were doing the right thing."

Officials devised their plan within a few hours with the cooperation of Mayo-Franciscan's infectious disease department and consulting with colleagues at Mayo in Rochester, he said.

"We have sequestered the materials and are working with infectious disease to watch what happens to the samples of dust," Kruse said of the process, expected to take six weeks.

That information will help decide whether any of the supplies can be used or must be discarded, he said.

Kruse saluted Mayo-Franciscan staffers for their speed in replacing the equipment and supplies, which also resulted in FedEx's reserving a caravan of vehicles to transport the emergency shipments from vendors.

The next phase is calculating the financial impact of transferred and postponed surgeries and replacing the thousands of pieces of supplies, Kruse said.

"It will be significant, but we don't know the cost," he said.

Copyright 2015 - La Crosse Tribune, Wis.