Vermont’s workplace safety agency began an inspection of the University of Vermont Medical Center’s Fanny Allen campus this week after receiving a complaint over an incident on Oct. 9 in which an unidentified odor caused 17 employees to seek medical attention.
The Vermont Occupational Safety and Health Administration had previously said that it was not looking into the incident at the Colchester hospital, because no one had filed a formal complaint. A VOSHA official also said the incident had not been investigated because the employees received outpatient care and were not held overnight for inpatient treatment.
Dirk Anderson, general counsel for the Department of Labor, the agency that oversees VOSHA, confirmed this week that an investigation was opened on Thursday, two days after after an employee filed a complaint.
A redacted copy of the complaint describes the hazard as “Chemical exposure two weeks ago since resolved,” and says seven staff members have symptoms consistent with long-term exposure to carbon monoxide, “Vertigo, nausea, General malaise.”
Staff also reported feeling nauseous on the day of the incident, after noting “the smell of exhaust, or something that smelled like fumes.”
UVMMC temporarily closed an operating room at Fanny Allen and sent affected employees to an on-site urgent care facility “out of an abundance of caution,” the medical center’s vice president for hospital operations, Dawn LeBaron, said at the time.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control lists the most common symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning as headache, dizziness, weakness, upset stomach, vomiting, chest pain, and confusion.
The complaint with VOSHA is consistent with another report made directly to VTDigger from a Fanny Allen employee, as well as secondhand information provided by a former anesthesiologist at the hospital.
UVMMC administrators say they still don’t know what caused the odor. The Colchester Fire Department was called in to respond and found “no detectable readings of carbon monoxide,” LeBaron said. She added that a universal air system in the building was checked and filters were changed, but again nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Our health and safety folks spend every day focused on maintaining and supporting a safe work environment,” LeBaron said Friday.
Real-time carbon monoxide detectors have since been installed in the five operating rooms following the initial incident.
The complaint also questioned the effectiveness of these carbon monoxide detectors, saying the air changes too frequently to set them off, but “Long term exposure to CO has (sic) our symptoms.”
LeBaron said hospital staff are checking the operating rooms twice a day for carbon monoxide and other hazardous gases, and at least one staff member is also wearing an air impurity detector in operating rooms at any given time.
“If the CO is nondetectable, then the exposure limit is zero,” she added.
The hospital has also hired an outside firm to investigate the source of the odor. LeBaron said the company is still working on its investigation and expects to have results by the end of next week. She said both the company and VOSHA are interviewing affected hospital staff about the incident.
Stephen Monahan, director of the workers’ compensation and safety division at VOSHA, said earlier this month that UVMMC self-reported the incident after it happened.
“We did not open an investigation because, from the information we had, it seemed likely by the time we got there, there wouldn’t be anything to test for,” Monahan said on Oct. 22. He added that an employee complaint “may or may not” warrant a response from the agency.
Anderson, the DOL counsel, said the inspection report will be made public upon completion. He said federal regulations require inspection reports to be closed out within six months of their initiation.
LeBaron said she welcomes the opportunity to work with VOSHA to resolve the issue.
“We understand the anxiety here,” she said. “The day this happened, something occurred.”
