Surgeries Temporarily Stopped at Huntington Hospital as Federal Agency Conducts Audit

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) conducted an unscheduled audit of Huntington Memorial Hospital on Monday in the wake of a publicized superbug outbreak in July and stopped some surgeries temporarily.

Huntington President and CEO Steve Ralph said in a statement that “elective surgeries were temporarily halted (Monday) evening and resumed (Tuesday),” according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.

“As with any audit, business as usual can be disrupted,” Ralph said.

Rufus Arther, director of hospital and community care operations at CMS, told the newspaper that although the agency routinely conducts unannounced audits of hospitals every three years a complaint can trigger immediate inspections.

The CMS inspection follows announced investigations by the Pasadena Public Health Department, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, California Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control after three patients contracted a sometimes-deadly bacterial infection called pseudomonas.

Although the pseudomonas discovered at Huntington Hospital  is not the same type of bacteria linked to superbug infections found previously at UCLA and Cedars-Sinai, the Centers for Disease Control said said that serious pseudomonas infections can lead to severe illness and death.