A reflection of the decline in healthcare quality caused by Donald Dumb's massive cuts to health care and medical research. I've tried medical care in different countries, and quality is better in those other countries than in the US where, like with everything else, perception is everything" while the substance stinks.
In the US, insurance companies scam their patients with cryptic rules in fine print all buried deep under cumbersome paperwork, bureaucracy and a marketing approach to care, all promoted by the scamming insurance companies that stand between the patient and their medical care providers. I still have to go through hundreds of pages each year of "updated" descriptions of what my insurance company will or will not cover this coming year. For example, the change concerns some limit in coverage from per year to per six months, which is written somewhere in a footprint on page 234 of the 250-page document. You discover the change when the bills start coming. Or, doctors who charge $400 for a 5-minute visit simply because they have to pay $300 to the insurance company protecting the doctor against malpractice. It's a hugely complex and complicated system whose primary objective is to increase the stock price and dividends of shareholders of insurance companies, and not to secure the welfare of the patient and the doctor.
In other countries, there may be less shine and shimmer - no annual 300-page updates in thick glossy paper of coverage or no-coverage, backed by photos of "integrated" black and white couples or gay couples to demonstrate that the company is in tune with the times, but one gets humane genuinely friendly care at a reasonable cost.
The corporatization of healthcare, and its consequent focus on profit, has done great damage to the fundamental principles of provision of care in the US. Sad to say, but many healthcare providers around the world are being forced to adopt the mercantile American system without any consideration of the local context. You can't just copy-and-paste a cumbersome system from one locale to another and assume it will function properly, when the fact is that it is NOT functioning properly in the US to begin with.
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Colorado hospital paused surgeries for a week after inspectors found hundreds of instruments covered in ‘dried blood and tissue’
Erin Keller
Fri, October 17, 2025
Colorado hospital paused surgeries for a week after inspectors found hundreds of instruments covered in ‘dried blood and tissue’
State inspectors have revealed that UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital’s week-long shutdown of nonemergency surgeries came after they found dozens of contaminated surgical instruments caked with dried blood and tissue around the facility.
In July, inspectors uncovered a massive backlog of uncleaned tools, prompting the hospital to halt all nonemergency surgeries from July 16 to July 25 while safety violations were addressed.
The inspection, triggered by a formal complaint, found 17 stainless steel carts in the hospital’s sterile processing department (SPD) bearing between 11 and 30 trays of dirty surgical instruments each.
Additional carts were discovered in a holding room near the operating suites and in a hallway, with hundreds of trays left “open to air and heavily soiled with dried blood and tissue,” inspectors wrote, according to The Colorado Sun.
The state regulator classified the situation as an “immediate jeopardy” finding, indicating that patients faced imminent harm unless corrective measures were implemented quickly.
UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital paused nonemergency surgeries for a week in July after inspectors found dozens of contaminated instruments and a massive sterilization backlog (Getty Images)
UCHealth spokesperson Kelli Christensen told The Sun that the hospital’s SPD had been operating at reduced capacity, leading to postponed or relocated elective surgeries.
The hospital worked closely with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to address the violations, a spokesperson added.
“We issued a deficiency at an immediate jeopardy level, which required the facility to develop an immediate and long-term plan to correct any violations,” CDPHE spokesperson Alexandrea Kallin told The Sun this week.
The backlog emerged amid the opening of new operating rooms, which dramatically increased the SPD’s workload.
Before expansion, the hospital estimated needing 65.2 full-time equivalent staff. After expansion, the need rose to 85.2 full-time equivalent staff. Inspectors found no evidence that staffing had increased to meet this demand.
At times, instruments went unsterilized for more than 24 hours, but technicians told investigators that the delays could stretch up to six days.
From April to July, inspectors documented dozens of days during which over 100 sets of contaminated instruments went unprocessed, including one day with 500 sets left unprocessed, according to reports.
Inside the SPD, staff were instructed to spray uncleaned instruments every 72 hours with a pre-cleaning solution, which inspectors said violated manufacturer instructions.
The hospital can use up 1,000 trays a day and thousands of individual surgical instruments, Christensen told The Sun.
This is a problem as dried blood and tissue increase the risk of biofilm, a hardened bacterial buildup that is difficult to remove. This could result in “less effective disinfection and sterilization,” one inspector wrote.
The SPD director reported staffing shortages over the past year, with backlogs reported daily to leadership.
Christensen confirmed to The Sun this week that the hospital faced challenges filling open SPD positions, resulting in the temporary shortage.
During the July shutdown, UCHealth expanded SPD staffing to 140 FTEs, exceeding national benchmarks, and increased pay for these positions, Christensen told the outlet.
No patients at UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital were harmed in connection with the sterilization backlog (UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital)
The hospital also implemented stricter monitoring of staffing levels and instrument cleaning delays. By September, state inspectors confirmed the hospital was in compliance with all surveyed regulations and imposed no further sanctions.
Inspection reports did not identify any instances of patient harm directly linked to the sterilization failures. UCHealth said it found no infections connected to the backlog, though at least one surgery was delayed while staff cleaned or replaced specialized instruments.
Christensen framed the incident as a temporary staffing crisis resolved through a close partnership with the CDPHE.
She said the hospital’s commitment to making the necessary changes demonstrates that patients can trust the hospital to provide safe, reliable care.
“Their findings affirmed that our processes are safe, effective and aligned with the highest standards of patient care,” Christensen wrote to The Sun. “All patients whose procedures were postponed have been rescheduled and the majority of those surgeries have now taken place.”
The Independent has reached out to UCHealth and the CDPHE for further comment.
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