Health care providers in the Portland, Oregon, area said Thursday that 2,400 patients should get blood tests because an anesthesiologist may have exposed them to HIV as well as hepatitis B and C in recent months. In a statement, Providence Health said that it “recently learned that Providence’s comprehensive infection control practices may not have been followed by a physician during some procedures” at several hospitals, including Providence Portland Medical Center, Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center, and “other non-Providence hospitals.” The individual who was allegedly responsible is a physician previously employed by the Oregon Anesthesiology Group, said Legacy in the statement.
The unnamed person is no longer employed by Oregon Anesthesiology Group and the company is no longer contracted by Providence, it said. Providence said in its statement that the physician “might have put patients at a low risk of exposure” to hepatitis B and C as well as HIV for 2,200 patients who were seen at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center. Two patients seen at Providence Portland Medical Center were also exposed, it said.
As a result, the medical group said that the potentially affected patients will receive a letter with more information, but it encouraged those patients to get a blood test to determine whether they were infected with hepatitis or HIV “out of an abundance of caution,” and “at no cost,” according to the statement. “If a patient tests p.