Legacy Health and Providence Facilities in Portland Notify 2,400 Patients of Infection Control Breach

2,400 patients at Providence and Legacy Health facilities in Portland, Oregon, are being notified of an “infection control breach” that “may have exposed them to infectious diseases.” KGW has the news.

221 patients are being contacted by Legacy Health. The exposure came “from a single provider contracted through the Oregon Anesthesiology Group who was providing care at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center for a period of six months, beginning in December 2023.”

The remaining 2,200 patients at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center and two patients at Providence Portland Medical Center were being notified of a “similar breach.” Those exposures were also related to a single physician, who “no longer works for the anesthesiology group, and the hospital system no longer contracts with the group.”

Providence’s patients were put “at a low risk of exposure” to infectious diseases, “including hepatitis B and C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).” Providence is offering them a blood test to screen for those infections free of charge. The Oregon Health Authority is to this point “not currently aware of any reports of illness related to it.” The physician involved had “delivered intravenous anesthesia and employed ‘unacceptable infection control practices, which put patients at risk of infections.’”