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Did Santa Barbara health clinic infect patients with Hepatitis C?

April 8, 2015

medicalSanta Barbara health officials have closed a medical clinic while they try to determine if its staff infected patients with Hepatitis C and other blood-borne illnesses.

In February, a patient at the unnamed clinic was diagnosed with an acute case of Hepatitis C after receiving an injection at the clinic. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department of Public Health and the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department responded Saturday by sending 360 letters to former patients of the clinic.

During their investigation, public health officials discovered staffers at the clinic were not following required protocols set in place to stop the spread of blood borne diseases. Investigators are contacting patients who received an injection at the clinic during the past seven years. Each patient will then be tested for Hepatitis C, Hepatitis B and HIV.

“During this investigation, the medical office was observed not following standard/universal precautions to protect themselves and their patients,” said Public Health spokesperson Susan Klein-Rothschild in a statement. “The healthcare professional at this medical clinic is cooperating in providing patient records and other relevant information.”

At this time, the public health department is not releasing any additional information.

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With the decline in quality of so many of those that staff our doctor’s offices, this does not surprise me one bit. We are seeing a culture of office staff in our local medical field that really could care less and worry more about where the group is going for lunch that day or gossip conversations about their vato boyfriends rather than paying utmost attention to patients needs. It’s only going to get worse.


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That is not what I observe at my doctor’s clinic. Their problems seem to be more due to under-staffing and a resulting “hurry up, I’ve got 4 more things waiting” attitude at times. Maybe we should both look for new doctors that have found a happy medium of proper professionals who aren’t over-worked.


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