Surgery center did not disinfect properly

LAS VEGAS, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- An outpatient surgery center told Nevada authorities it failed to properly disinfect instruments it uses during colonoscopies, state health officials said.

The hygienic breach posed minimal risk to the clinic's patients, authorities said.

The staff at Specialty Surgicare of Las Vegas, also known as Specialty Surgery Center, discovered the lapse during a routine maintenance inspection Dec. 18, the Las Vegas Sun reported.

The disinfection cycle on the machine that cleans the scopes used in colonoscopies and upper-endoscopy procedures was set at 1 minute instead of 5, as the manufacturer recommends, the newspaper said.

The disinfection problems go back to at least the beginning of 2007, the newspaper said.

After correcting the problem, the clinic faxed a letter divulging the lapse to the state Health Division, which licenses the facility.

The clinic also notified the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Southern Nevada Health District, which investigated a hepatitis C outbreak in early 2008 at a different Las Vegas endoscopy center that triggered alarm and anger.

State epidemiologist Dr. Ihsan Azzam said the latest error caused virtually no patient risk.

State officials added that while the patient risk is low, they were troubled the surgical center failed to follow the manufacturer's instructions.