Missouri: VA Technician Says She Warned of Sterilization Problems

A former technician at the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center said she warned supervisors of sterilization errors more than a year before the VA was forced to notify vets of possible exposure to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.

"If people were taking their jobs seriously, not passing the buck and pointing the finger, none of this would have happened," medical supply technician Earlene Johnson said at a congressional hearing Tuesday in St. Louis.

The lapses involved prewashing dental equipment without detergent prior to sterilization, VA Undersecretary for Health Robert Petzel said.

In March 2010, the St. Louis VA concluded that its dental clinic sterilization processes between February 1, 2009, and March 11, 2010, were inadequate. Two weeks ago, the VA sent letters to 1,812 veterans urging them to be tested for viruses including hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV.

While these viruses have been found in some of the 950 vets tested so far, it is not known if exposure at the VA is the source, said Dr. George Arana of the Veterans Health Administration.

Sterilization procedures have been revised, and no one who received services since March 11 is at risk, Petzel said.

Johnson said she first alerted officials at the VA of problems in March 2009. She believes her complaints resulted in her subsequent termination, and she is seeking to be reinstated.

The VA took heat at the hearing for the gap between confirmation of the exposure in March of this year and notification almost four months later.

"We did not respond quickly enough," Petzel said.