Medical device reprocessing issue at Grande Prairie Regional Hospital

GRANDE PRAIRIE - Due to a medical device reprocessing (MDR) issue affecting surgical instrument sterilization, Grande Prairie Regional Hospital (GPRH) has made the decision to use only surgical instruments reprocessed in Edmonton until the issue is addressed. This change requires a temporary postponement of some elective surgeries (scheduled, pre-booked).

Emergency surgeries (including c-sections, cancer and trauma cases) have remained available at all times. We expect resumption of elective surgeries early this week.

Any impacted surgeries will be rescheduled as soon as possible. In the event of surgical postponement, patients will be directly notified and re-scheduled as soon as possible. We regret any inconvenience this may cause for patients and their families and are working with them directly to reschedule their procedure as soon as possible.
Decisions to postpone some surgeries are made in the interest of patient safety, while ensuring the hospital has capacity to continue providing emergency surgeries.

Our teams are working to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

Patient safety is always our top priority. We will resume full regular surgical operations as surgical instrument reprocessing is restored, including any necessary repairs to MDR equipment or systems, and it has been demonstrated to be safe to do so.

The GPRH emergency department remains open and no other healthcare services are impacted.

Alberta Health Services provides acute care services for more than five million Albertans at hospitals, urgent care centres and health centres across the province. Our mission is to provide excellent and accessible patient-focused healthcare for all Albertans. Our current focus is on reducing emergency department wait times, increasing access to surgeries and improving patient flow.