DETROIT - Detroit Medical Center says the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved its plan to address problems with its sterilization of surgical instruments.
The medical center announced Tuesday the plan includes the formation of a surgical improvement council and task force to oversee instrument sterilization.
It says the plan also addresses better policies and procedures for cleaning, processing and sterilization of instruments and enhanced training and monitoring.
The medical center has admitted that unclean surgical tools sometimes forced doctors to delay procedures, including heart surgery on a 7-month-old girl, although it insists that no one was harmed. The problems were reported in August by The Detroit News and listed as deficiencies in an inspection conducted Aug. 29 by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
