Thousands Of Oklahoma Dental Patients Urged To Get Tested For Hiv

[Redlinerobert]

Thousands of Oklahoma dental patients urged to get tested for HIV
 

 

Thousands of patients of an Oklahoma dentist are being urged to get tested for HIV and hepatitis after public health officials found evidence of practices that could have exposed patients to the viruses.

The Oklahoma and Tulsa health departments said Thursday approximately 7,000 people who were treated at clinics operated by Dr. W. Scott Harrington could have been exposed to Hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

The agencies said they found "major violations" of the Oklahoma Dental Act and numerous violations of health and safety laws during an investigation into Harrington's practice.

Spokeswoman Kaitlin Snider of the Tulsa Health Department says Harrington voluntarily closed his practice and is cooperating with investigators.

Letters are being sent to 7,000 patients from Harrington's clinics in Tulsa and suburban Owasso since 2007.

The agencies say it is rare for infections to spread in occupational settings but that tests are important.

Phone numbers for Harrington at his home and offices were disconnected Thursday. A message left with Harrington's malpractice attorney in Tulsa, Jim Secrest II, was not immediately returned.

The Dentistry Board complaint says Harrington and his staff told investigators that a "high population of known infectious disease carrier patients" received dental care from him.

A device used to sterilize all instruments wasn't working properly, the complaint said. A test is supposed to performed monthly and sent to a lab to determine that the equipment is successfully sterilizing instruments, but "no such test had ever been performed in the 6 years one dental assistant had been working at the office," the complaint said.

The doctor also apparently used outdated drugs, as one vial found this year had an expiration date of 1993, the complaint said.

Susan Rogers, executive director of the state Board of Dentistry, said that as an oral surgeon, Harrington routinely does invasive procedures that involve "pulling teeth, open wounds, open blood vessels."

"This is an unprecedented event," Rogers said in an interview. "To my knowledge, this has never happened before as far as a public notification of a (hepatitis C) case involving a dental office."

The health departments said hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV are serious medical conditions and infected patients may not have outward symptoms of the disease for many years. "As a precaution, and in order to take appropriate steps to protect their health, it is important for these patients to get tested," their statement said.

Testing will be offered free of charge at the Tulsa Health Department's North Regional Health and Wellness Center.

[A-Jay]

Oh Man ~

 

Dr Dirty had better lay low.

 

A-Jay

[Redlinerobert]

I'm hoping no one from here was his patient!

[gripnrip]

Not me! My wife has a friend that had some wisdom teeth pulled by him!

[Redlinerobert]

Yikes! 

[Teal]

Oh lord! Wow. What a negligent guy!!!! How *&%$#&* careless can you be!!! He better go hide under a rock.

[rockchalk06]

I may have family that went there. Thank god I never did. Haven't been to a density in many years.

Things like this makes me just want to find a river in some back woods far away place and hide!

[SirSnookalot]

That's bad news.  We have a dentist from Michigan as a BR member, I'd like to hear his take on it.  I would not forgo  dental care due to a report like this, your teeth and gums are very important for your over all health.  Gum disease is one of the leading causes of heart attacks.

[nick76]

I can say that as a Dentist, yes from Michigan, that this is really disturbing. Some of the reports I have seen said that this guy not only didn't sterilize correctly, he deliberately used non-sterile instruments on patients. I was a little put off while watching one of the morning TV newscasts that said your Dentist should always use barriers and on and on and on. You can effectively clean and not need barriers for every item. We have to test our equipment and our sterile pouches have built in strips to tell if they are sterilized or not. This guy I am willing to bet has deeper issues and it won't surprise me if there is some insurance fraud found either. His staff deserve some of the blame too, they know right from wrong, and most offices have sterilization procedures run by the staff.

I do doubt that they find many patients who are contaminated or maybe none at all. The risk of transmission is very low. This will just be one big eye opener for new legislation.

[gripnrip]

The news has reported one lady having never had issues before going to his office.  She now has HIV and hepatitis. 

[nick76]

This is unfortunately going to be a difficult case to prove. The patients are going to have to prove, beyond a doubt, that they were infected by his office. A good defense lawyer will probably tear any patient apart on their past history and proflof that they were infected by him. I do not agree with trashing a patient, but this will be a difficult case to prove that he infected. These conditions lay dormant for years and the CDC openly claims that transmission is rare by fluids that have been exposed to air for any length of time. I feel bad for the patients, the mental impact of never knowing if it when it may show up is terrible.

[scrutch]

Sad. In every sense of the word.

[CoBass]

This is unfortunately going to be a difficult case to prove. The patients are going to have to prove, beyond a doubt, that they were infected by his office. A good defense lawyer will probably tear any patient apart on their past history and proflof that they were infected by him. I do not agree with trashing a patient, but this will be a difficult case to prove that he infected. These conditions lay dormant for years and the CDC openly claims that transmission is rare by fluids that have been exposed to air for any length of time. I feel bad for the patients, the mental impact of never knowing if it when it may show up is terrible.

Some of the early reports I read mentioned him also re-using IV tubing. If that is true it would be pretty easy to convince a jury that you contracted HIV and or hepatitis from his procedures. A lot of times in cases like this you see an escalation of malpractice. It starts with a few minor missteps and then it snowballs from there. It seems like once they take that one little step across the line and get away with it they think they won't get caught and go all in.