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GROVE CITY, Ohio (AP) – Ohio health officials on Friday ordered a newly opened hospital outside Columbus to immediately purge and disinfect its water pipes and take other measures to protect public health after seven patients were diagnosed with life-threatening legionnaires.
The Ohio Department of Health said in a statement that the first Mount Carmel Grove City patient, in whom a legionnaire, a severe form of pneumonia, had been diagnosed, had been admitted to the 200-bed hospital April 29, the day after it opens. The statement described the awarding ordinance of state health director, Amy Acton, as a rare event.
The hospital was also ordered to test and clean its ice machines, clean and maintain its on-site cooling towers and provide all test results and a water management plan to the ministry. of Health.
If Mount Carmel does not follow Acton's guidelines, she will order the hospital to stop accepting patients, the statement said.
State and Franklin County health officials were conducting an environmental badessment at Mount Carmel on Saturday morning.
Mount Carmel spokeswoman Samantha Irons said in a statement on Friday that the hospital is carrying out additional tests on its water sources and that its water supply is subject to "additional" disinfection. She said the hospital officials were convinced that Mount Carmel could maintain full services "while we study this situation".
According to Mount Carmel's statement, anyone hospitalized in this facility with cough, muscle aches, headache or shortness of breath should contact their primary care physician.
The Centers for Disease Control and Infection website indicates that legionnaires are infected by inhaling water droplets into the air containing Legionella bacteria. Cooling towers containing water and a fan as part of a centralized cooling system are a potential source of legionellosis, says the CDC.
Although most healthy people are not affected, people over the age of 50, smokers, and people with weakened immune systems and chronic lung disease are most at risk. to be infected, explains the CDC.
The Mount Carmel system was the subject of close examination after discovering that a doctor had prescribed excessive doses of painkillers to 29 patients who died in his other hospitals.
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