Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Compounding Disaster - July 2016 - Subscribe to Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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• MAN-MADE EPIDEMIC A nationwide outbreak of a rare and deadly form of meningitis killed 64 people and sickened more than 750 who received contaminated steroid injections from the New England Compounding Center. Compounding T A I N T E D S T E R O I D S How the deadliest medication contamination case in U.S. history happened — and how it could happen again. Outpatient Surgery Editors F rom the Boston Strangler to the Marathon Bombings, Beantown has had its share of spectacular killings. But the deadliest, most chilling of them all may turn out to be the medication contamination case going on trial this winter. At least 76 surgery centers, hospitals and pain clinics injected the hips, joints and backs of patients with steroids they'd bought from a family-run compounding pharmacy in a suburban Boston strip mall. Little did they know that a deadly fungus growing in many of the vials would spark a meningitis outbreak that would kill 64 peo- ple and sicken more than 750 others. All right under the government's nose. You may think you know the New England Compounding Center story, but you probably don't. And you should. Because without the vigilance of people like you, it can — and some think probably will — happen again, maybe on an even larger scale. 3 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U L Y 2 0 1 6

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