Harrisburg, PA – Secretary of Health Karen Murphy released the following statement on the reopening of the UPMC transplant program.
“As soon as we were alerted of this issue, the Pennsylvania Department of Health immediately worked in collaboration with our federal partners, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to take action and protect patients.
The Department of Health also collaborated with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) and the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), and Center for Medicare Services (CMS) division of Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) to thoroughly investigate the mold issue that led to the temporary suspension of the organ transplant program at UPMC.
“The CDC team, at the request of the Department of Health, has been on site since last week conducting a comprehensive epidemiological and environmental review.
"Though transplants can resume, UPMC with will be submitting a corrective action plan to the Department with enhanced infection control and prophylactic measures designed to ensure patient safety recommended by the CDC that includes but not limited to: mold remediation of the cardiothoracic intensive care unit; optimizing patient placement and preventive medication to best protect them from mold spores, use of UV disinfecting robots; instituting additional cleaning procedures; replacement of micro filters in all air handling units; and a new handling process for hospital linen. An increase in surveillance to detect mold in all UPMC facilitates will also be implemented.
“Moving forward, the Department will be aggressively monitoring execution of these measures.
“The Department of Health acted swiftly to engage the nation’s leading subject matter experts in this investigation and will continue to collaborate with the federal agencies to ensure the highest level of patient safety and public health is afforded to all Pennsylvanians.”
MEDIA CONTACT: Amy Worden, DOH, 717-787-1783
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