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St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital (NYC) may have bed bugs
(7 posts)-
depressedandconfused
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 2 months ago
Tue Sep 15 2009 4:38:25
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I started getting bites after my husband had surgery at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in NYC. I just want to share this information to let people know to be careful after coming home from the hospital.
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bugfreebed
junior member
Joined: Sep '09
Posts: 56
Posted 2 months ago
Tue Sep 15 2009 15:50:17
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I got into the pest biz about 4 years ago and went to an all day BB seminar shortly there after . During the seminar they talked about potential place that BB would survive and hearing some of these places really scared me for a while . Any place where there is a constant rotation of traffic where ppl rest for a couple of hours like a hospital waiting room , movie theater ext. We all need to live or lives as normal as possible and just beware that this a growing problem .
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parakeets
oldtimer
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 866
Posted 2 months ago
Fri Sep 18 2009 16:40:32
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I was treated at a sleep health center that had up to 8 different people sleep there each night for sleep studies. In their own way, this medical facility was like a small hotel. Yet they had no bedbug policy in place and even posted on the internet, when an issue was raised about their not having an effective bedbug policy in place, that they cleaned the rooms and washed the sheets every night. (That's not enough to protect hotels from bedbug problems so where is this sleep center getting the idea that that is enough to protect them from having bedbugs?). Yes, even the doctors who run the sleep center that refused to let me stay in their lab seem to know NOTHING about bedbugs. shame on them.
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depressedandconfused
newbite
Joined: Aug '09
Posts: 32
Posted 2 months ago
Sat Sep 19 2009 0:37:50
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I do believe that medical facilities should be on top of the bed bug problem. There is no reason why they can't encase all of their mattresses, wash all bedding in hot water after each use, and clean lockers and other items with rubbing alcohol. I think that some centers are more careful and clean than others. I also think that in areas like NYC, where infestations are on the rise, there's an obligation for facilities to take precautions.
Just to give you an idea of the expense and losses to me personally (and I know many of you will understand or have gone through worse):
I have thrown out 5 bookshelves (4 were unfinished wood) costing about $900
An old couch - $100
An old chair - $50
A beautiful, folding cane backed chair that was my great grandmother's - $30
About 100 books that could have been donated or sold to a used bookstore $100
A leather ottoman - $500
baskets - $300 (hand-made in the USA)
clothing, lamps, etc. $1000
cost of plastic bins, ziploc bags, packing tape, bubble wrap, etc. to pack all my belongings - $500 (at least)
Packtite, encasements, climb-ups - $560
Dog inspection - $375
Treatment - $2000+Imagine 100 people going through my ordeal because they picked something up from a poorly run hospital. Compare my costs to the cost of the hospital encasing mattresses and cleaning up better.
I am no longer innocent and carefree. I will burn or at least bag and heat all items that come home from the hospital now.
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parakeets
oldtimer
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 866
Posted 2 months ago
Mon Sep 21 2009 10:46:02
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Sadly I don't know if "putting mattresses in encasements and cleaning up better" would prevent the bedbug problem in hospitals. I went to a bedbug conference where they said they were shocked to find bedbugs in the transplant units of hospitals where the highest standards of cleanliness, almost to the bacterial level, are kept.
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your host
Joined: Mar '07
Posts: 5,547
Posted 2 months ago
Tue Sep 22 2009 12:21:14
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Depressed,
you should definitely call the hospital's offices and report your concern so they can follow up by inspecting beds and rooms he was in (and chairs you were in!)
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cilecto
senior member
Joined: Aug '08
Posts: 519
Posted 1 month ago
Wed Sep 23 2009 6:02:45
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The more people come through a place, like a hospital, the more I'd expect there to be BB, somewhere. A few months ago, someone reported on "bedbugregistry" seeing BB in a Brooklyn hospital waiting area, where patents' family members often camp out. A few months back, I spent a few days shepherding my mom through the ER and a short hospitalization (different hospital) and avoided sitting down for the duration.
Bear in mind that hospital mattresses (from what I've seen) are built differently than residential, with no piping or tufts, sometimes covered in seamless plastic. They are (or should be) scrubbed down between patients. That said, BB can camp out in equipment, in closets, drawers, etc.
At this point, BB are probably found in more places than we know (or want to hear) or their operators want to know (or tell us). Remember that episode about the "hotel" in Harrisburg totally infested...with the popular restaurant, club on the street level? How many people came through there? There was a recent post on bedbugregistry for a building in my (NYC) 'hood that houses; a restaurant I enjoy regularly, a popular bar that serves hundreds, if not thousands of patrons a week, a "friends" style coffee bar (with cozy couches, etc). "They" don't want to know, they're not going to tell us, we're not sure "we" want to hear it. It's like Lower Manhattan after 9/11; we didn't want to abandon our homes, we needed our jobs, we didn't want the terrorists to win, so (for a while) we suspended the rational idea that all that dust might be bad.
Adjusting to the new reality of BB is going to take massive changes in how we live, work and shop (which, face it, we're not ready for) or playing for time until the "magic bullet" gets created.
Remember Ibsen's play "An Enemy of the People"? The town doctor discovers that runoff from the town's main business (the tannery, run by his brother) is sickeningning the people who visit the town's main tourist attraction (the spa) and proposes a plan to address the crisis. This requires a temporary shutdown of the mill. No go. For his troubles, the doctor is run out of town. Being a "bedbugger" sometimes feels that way.
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