Local patients may have been exposed to diseases

Former patients at the Bloomington Surgery Clinic are encouraged to get tested for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C and HIV because of unsafe practices possibly used by an anesthesiologist at the practice. \nAnyone who had surgery at the center between February 2004 and May 2006 may have been exposed to these diseases because an anesthesiologist used a practice of replacing only the needle, not the syringe, between patients. It is currently recommended that physicians replace both needles and syringes used on other patients. However, the actual risk of infection is “extremely low,” Douglas Webb, the doctor hired to investigate the situation, said in a letter to each patient’s primary physician. \nWebb, a specialist in infectious disease practicing in Indianapolis, was hired in independently to review the potential for infection. In a letter sent to each patient’s primary physician, Webb said it was theoretically possible that patients were exposed to infection by “a minute intermixing of blood and medication in the syringe that was shared by other patients.” However, Webb stressed that the risk of infection was minimal. \nLiza Dittoe, spokesperson for the Bloomington Surgery Center, said “an extensive investigation was performed with no finding of infection.” \nThe anesthesiologist in question is no longer with the practice, Dittoe said. All 1,880 patients treated by the anesthesiologist were offered free testing for the diseases at the Internal Medicine Associates’ laboratory in Bloomington, Webb said in the letter.