TOWN OF WALLKILL – Orange Regional Medical Center is planning to go off trauma diversion in the next 24 to 48 hours and resume a full surgical schedule today or Wednesday. That word came from spokesman Rob Lee, after more than a week of cancelled surgeries due to equipment sterilization concerns.
“The issues that originally prompted surgeries to be rescheduled were not infectious and testing has found no biological concerns,” Lee said. “Our decision to reschedule surgeries was voluntary and for the sole purpose of patient safety.”
Surgeries have been cancelled since Friday, November 2.
Lee said over this past weekend officials have made “great progress” in rectifying the sterilization issues and that all sterilization equipment components have been completely refurbished or replaced.
“We have refurbished all surgical instruments, purchased a new sterilizer container system, added a new filtration system and made many other enhancements,” he said.
Orange Regional is able to conduct emergency surgeries for inpatients, as needed, and is able to take a limited number of incoming emergent surgical cases based on patients’ needs and the sterilized surgical tray inventory, Lee said.
All patients whose surgeries were to be rescheduled should speak with their surgeon regarding details of their rescheduled surgery date.
