Santa Clara County hospitals accused of illegally dumping fentanyl, data

Santa Clara county hospitals have illegally dumped tons of biohazardous waste, together with prescribed drugs, human tissue and vials containing blood, county prosecutors mentioned.

One picture appeared to point out a discarded umbilical twine or a part of a human organ, amongst piles of trash with dirty towels, used syringes, unemptied prescription vials and over-the-counter medication, together with fentanyl, and medical tools, officers mentioned in a information launch Thursday. Lots of of paperwork with unredacted private affected person info had been additionally discovered.

“The County’s well being and hospital system is run with taxpayer {dollars},” Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen mentioned within the launch. “The general public must know what occurred, and the County is not going to get a free move in relation to environmental safety and client privateness legal guidelines.”

The Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system — which is second solely to L.A. County’s as the biggest county-run well being system in California — consists of Santa Clara Valley Medical Heart, O’Connor Hospital and St. Louise Regional Hospital.

District lawyer investigators covertly intercepted eight deliveries of rubbish compactors from the three county hospitals beginning in November 2023, Bud Porter, a supervising deputy district lawyer, informed The Instances in an interview Thursday. Every rubbish compactor — which holds about 4 tons — was contaminated with medical and dangerous waste, he mentioned.

“We have now a fairly compelling quantity of proof,” Porter mentioned.

Two of the hospitals empty their compactors 3 times every week, he mentioned, whereas one is emptied as soon as every week. A minimum of 1,000 tons of contaminated trash had been disposed of by the hospitals during the last yr, he estimated.

“Primarily based on the sample of violations discovered throughout the eight waste inspections, it’s estimated that tens of hundreds of things of medical and dangerous waste had been illegally disposed of within the trash by the three County hospitals within the final yr,” the district lawyer’s workplace mentioned.

Civil penalties for improper dumping embrace fines as much as $70,000 per disposal of hazardous waste and as much as $10,000 per disposal of medical waste.

The district lawyer’s workplace determined to open an investigation into the county hospitals after seeing the $49-million settlement from Kaiser Permanente in September 2023 for mismanagement of medical waste and affected person info — much like what he noticed with the county hospitals, Porter mentioned. He couldn’t say how lengthy the hospitals had been dumping supplies earlier than the investigation started, however mentioned the habits was constant between inspections.

“Santa Clara Valley Healthcare (SCVH) understands the immense efforts and work invested by the District Lawyer’s Workplace in reviewing medical and dangerous waste disposal and is taking the matter very significantly,” the hospital system mentioned in a press release. “We’re dedicated to adopting trade best-practices to forestall future occurrences and upon studying of the small print three weeks in the past, instantly started implementing corrective actions to handle the issues, together with reviewing and updating insurance policies, creating an audit overview course of, and designating division liaisons to shortly facilitate obligatory modifications.”

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