FAIRWAY, KS (KCTV) -
More than two dozen local hospitals and medical facilities are now on alert because they may have received tainted drugs linked to meningitis.
Officials say they found unclean conditions at a Massachusetts pharmacy linked to the outbreak that killed 23 people. The federal government has issued a precautionary recall for additional products.
Area hospitals did not receive the tainted product at the center of the meningitis outbreak. But they did receive products from the company in question and have put those products on hold. Some of those products include, for example, a facial cream.
Dr. Morris Coltrain of Overland Park-based Pierce Medical Clinic said he used the facial cream to numb patients' faces.
"I've never used them for injections at all," Coltrain said. "I'd probably never use them (facial cream and other products) again. This gives you a bad taste."
Shawnee Mission Medical Center said as a precaution that it pulled three products it received for fungal testing. The hospital did not receive the injectables.
"Those patients who received spinal injections at Shawnee Mission Medical Center have nothing to worry about," the statement read.
Overland Park Regional Medical Center is one of the 32 Kansas hospitals or medical facilities that received products from the Massachusetts company at the center of the fungal meningitis outbreak. It has been placed on the New England Compounding Center customer list.
Other facilities in Overland Park on the list include:
- Menorah Medical Center
- College Park Family Care Center
- Image Aesthetics
- NovaMed Eye Surgery Center
- Pierce Medical Center
- Surgicenter of Johnson County
Also, doctors' offices in Leawood, Shawnee, Lawrence, Olathe and Kansas City, KS, are on the NECC customer list.
Those hospitals and medical facilities include:
- Doctor's Hospital in Leawood
- KU MedWest Ambulatory Surgery Center in Shawnee
- Olathe Medical Center
- Shawnee Mission Medical Center
- University of Kansas Hospital
There are no Missouri facilities on the list.
Olathe Medical Center said in a statement that the hospital never purchased or received the injectable medicines in question in the outbreak.
The University of Kansas Hospital concurred. In addition, the hospital in KCK and its outpatient center in Shawnee have pulled from its shelves all products from NECC even though none have been linked to adverse patient reactions.
Hospital officials are working to notify via mail patients receiving any NECC product since May 21. The federal government says any symptoms would appear one to four weeks after exposure.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick says the state is working to revoke licenses of the NECC and three pharmacists. He also wants to tighten oversights at similar companies.
State officials in Massachusetts say there have been complaints of water from a leaking boiler built up outside a room that was supposed to remain sterile, and floor mats used by technicians were filthy.
Officials say the medications were shipped before the company could confirm they were sterile.
A top health official says a probe has not proven what caused the outbreak.
Click here for more information from the FDA for updates on fungal meningitis and NECC customer list.
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