Rose Medical Center was contacted by the Colorado Department of Health and Environment in June 2009 about the potential hepatitis C exposure by a former employee who had been terminated from her job two months earlier in April. We have been working diligently with the Health Department in their investigation to identify who might have been exposed to hepatitis C by the terminated surgical scrub technician, and to take care of them as quickly as we can. Our only concern has been our patient’s safety, health and privacy. 

We consulted with the State Health Department and the Centers for Disease Control and decided the best precaution for our patients is to offer free, confidential and individual testing to everyone who had surgery at Rose Medical Center or at the outpatient surgery department in the Wolf Building at Rose between October 21, 2008 and April 13, 2009.  Only patients who had surgery in the main hospital or the Wolf Building between October 21, 2008 and April 13, 2009 require testing. 

Please Note: Rose Medical Center is not releasing any numbers from the testing - our staff will work with every patient tested on an individual basis.   The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) is receiving  test results of patients directly from Quest Diagnostics and physicians, and is reporting weekly updates. Here is a link to the state findings:  
http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/dc/Hepatitis/hepc/InvestigationCaseTable.html

The CDPHE, in concert with the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), are the ONLY entities investigating if any of the patients testing positive for hep C may indeed have been exposed by the former employee.

It is important to understand - the state will report those people who test positive and who MAY be associated with the former employee as "positive/associated' - but even these are "tentative" and will likely change - once further testing by CDC is completed. At that time, as they can determine likelihood, the state will report new numbers as "positive/associated and linked by viral sequence analysis".  Again, all these numbers will flux - especially the "positive/associated".

While federal prosecutors have also given numbers, theirs do not reflect final epidemiologic investigation of the scientists and physicians. They are using a current population of "possibilities", not certainties.

• Download a Directory of Physicians Who Specialize in Treating Hepatitis C