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Based on interview and document review, the facility staff failed to maintain plumbing in patient rooms to prevent sewage backup in floor drains.

Failure to maintain sewer lines puts patients, staff and visitors at risk from infectious agents in wastewater.

Findings:

On 8/7/2014, between 11:00 and 11:45 AM, Surveyors #1 and #2 interviewed staff about a patient complaint related to sewer drain backup into the patient's room. Facility Staff confirmed that a leak occurred on 05/23/2014 (corresponding to the patient's stay) outside of operating room #3 and that two patient rooms had been affected as a result of the backup of the drain line. Patients were moved to other rooms, and the plant director, facilities manager and infection control officer were involved in securing the repair of the drain line. Upon investigation, the plumbers defied a 3 foot piece of copper pipe lodged vertically in the wastewater vent line.

The hospital provided documentation of the work order to make the repair, as well as the infection control risk assessment (ICRA) for the project and also provided documentation of the terminal cleaning completed on all affected areas prior to releasing them for patient use. Facility staff re-opened the operating room and the 2 affected patient rooms on 05/27/2014.