Source: Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (PA), September 15, 2015
Posted on: http://fpn.advisen.com
A mold outbreak has caused the closure of UPMC Presbyterian’s cardiothoracic intensive care unit and relocation of 18 patients, officials said Monday.
Doctors suspected the unit had a problem on Sept. 3 after a male transplant patient tested positive for mold in an external wound, Holly Lorenz, chief nursing officer for UPMC, said. She said hospital administrators decided to close the entire unit on Sept. 8 for an environmental cleanup.
“It is a rare and unfortunate event and I’m really blessed to have the level of expertise here at UPMC Presbyterian to help us solve the problem,” she said. “We’ve closed down the unit entirely for obvious patient safety reasons.”
Initially, hospital staff moved three patients when investigators removed a wall in an ICU room and found mold. They moved the remaining 15 last week after workers discovered mold in other parts of the 20-bed unit.
The cardiothoracic ICU typically handles patients with heart and lung disease and are admitted for heart procedures or transplants.
Lorenz said mold could lead to health problems in people with compromised immune systems. As for the patient whose condition led to the mold discovery, she said, “That patient had been acutely ill for most of his hospitalization. We’re still exploring what is going on in this patient.”
She declined to specify the nature of the patient’s transplant, adding that nobody else has gotten sick. She said she did not know what type of mold had been found.
“I think we have a level of confidence that this has been contained to this unit,” she said. “As we learn more about this we may end up looking in other areas to have a stronger level of confidence. For now, we’re pretty sure there’s no mold anywhere else.
“It’s important to note that the mold is not a danger to healthy members of our staff.”
UPMC also notified the state Department of Health along with the Allegheny County Health Department, which is standard operating procedure, Lorenz said. State officials did not immediately return a call for comment.
An outside mold removal company will assist in the cleanup, Lorenz said.
“We’re looking at everything we need to do to upgrade the unit,” she said. “It definitely has our attention.”
Joe Katzfey, a mold expert and co-owner of Preferred Restoration in Pine, said depending on the damage, a cleanup could take weeks, if not longer.
“Handling the mold remediation is half the equation,” he said. “From a logistics standpoint, once you remove the mold and get a clean bill of health, you still have to put everything back together.”