County health center ‘deep cleaning,’ taking other measures after bedbugs appear – Observer-Reporter

Residents were moved from a suite in the Alzheimers and Dementia Unit, known as One West, at Washington County Health Center because of fumigation for bedbugs.

Tim Kimmel, health center administrator, said the patients were scheduled to return by today.

A couple of critters, Kimmel said, were first noticed April 12 when a hospice aide was giving lunch to a patient.

I can only assume they were seen on the residents bed or around the resident, he continued.

During a head-to-toe check, no bite marks were found on the patient, and during that mornings care session, no bugs had been seen.

The health center concluded the bedbugs either came from the hospice workers bag or chair, which was removed, and the hospice care provider was notified.

Health center staff members washed all laundry and changed bedding in the affected room as part of a deep cleaning.

A chair was again brought into the health center by a hospice worker Monday, when bedbugs were found in the same room. The health center again contacted the hospice care provider, removed the chair and called an exterminator. This week, the staff performed a deep cleaning of the two-room suite with a shared bathroom, had it fumigated, and set bedbug-attracting traps from which the pests would be unable to escape.

The suite was left vacant for 72 hours, Kimmel said, and the state Health Department was notified. The staff performed head-to-toe examination of each of the health centers 230 residents, and the hospice care provider, which Kimmel declined to identify, was asked to check furniture or equipment it removes from its warehouse.

Forty-one residents live in the Alzheimers/Dementia unit.

Bedbugs are usually transported from place to place as people travel, according to the state Health Department website. The county is in the process of selling the 288-bed facility in Arden, Chartiers Township. It has several interested buyers and hopes to complete the process by summers end.

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County health center 'deep cleaning,' taking other measures after bedbugs appear - Observer-Reporter