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On February 24, one of the most brutal days of winter weather in memory on the North Coast, a courier transporting pathology specimens from patients at Eureka’s Providence-St. Joseph Hospital lost control of his vehicle and drove off the side of the road. 

With Hwy. 101 closed due to the weather, the courier had taken State Route 36, and according to one hospital employee, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of professional repercussions, the driver’s vehicle went into a ravine and collided with a tree. The driver was hospitalized for a few days, the employee said.

The specimens, which included biopsied tissue from patients who may have cancer or other serious diseases, were lost in the crash and have not been recovered.

These tissue samples, which were contained within locking plastic cassettes, were being driven to a laboratory in Santa Rosa, where, if they had arrived, they would have been thinly sliced and placed onto microscope slides for diagnosis.

The Outpost first learned about the incident from a doctor who was formerly employed at the hospital. The doctor, who also asked to remain anonymous due to fear of retaliation, said surgeons at the hospital were told that their affected patients would need to be re-biopsied, likely delaying their diagnoses.

“It’s a fucking nightmare,” said the doctor, who we’ll refer to with the pseudonym Dr. Miller. “These poor patients who lost tissue on the side of the road will have to get a second procedure, if it’s even available.”

In some cases, the doctor explained, the biopsied tissue may have consisted of an entire tumor or other suspect material, meaning there’s now nothing left over to remove and test. 

“If I was still there [working for the hospital], I’d be like, ‘We have to report this to the state,’” Dr. Miller said, adding that the biopsy cassettes likely contained personal patient information, potentially exposing Providence to violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a federal law aimed at protecting sensitive patient health information.

In response to questions from the Outpost, Providence Northern California issued the following statement:

At Providence, the safety and integrity of our patient’s health information is among our highest priorities.

On February 24, a courier who contracts with Providence in Humboldt County was involved in a weather-related accident while transporting pathology specimens. Following the accident, we acted and informed affected patients via letter that their specimen may have been in the vehicle at the time of the accident.

A third-party retrieval company was brought in to assist in locating the specimens, and any related patient health information, but were not successful. We immediately sent follow-up letters informing patients and advised them to contact their provider to discuss next steps for their care.

We are deeply sorry for any interruption of care this accident may have caused our patients and their families. We look forward to continue providing high-quality, compassionate care for patients involved.

The hospital employee, who we’ll call Jennifer, said that until recently, these types of pathology samples never would have been sent to Santa Rosa; they would have been placed on microscope slides by employees in St. Joseph Hospital’s own histology department. But after being short-staffed for years months, the histology department was closed altogether last summer, Jennifer said. 

The decision, she said, was made by upper management at Providence, a Catholic, not-for-profit health care system based in Renton, Wash., that merged with St. Joseph Health in 2016. 

“It has led to terrible turnaround times,” Jennifer said of the histology department closure. “Surgeons are pissed off about it. … The patient has to wait longer to get results … [sometimes] by a couple of days.”

Last week, the Outpost asked a number of questions that were not answered in the statement issued by Providence. Among them: 

• What exactly was lost (number of specimens)?
• What impacts has this incident had on patients?
• Did any patients have to be retested/re-biopsied?
• Have all affected patients been informed about the incident?
• Have state regulators been informed?
• When and why did Providence start sending pathology specimens to Santa Rosa for histology?

We sent a follow-up email this morning, repeating these questions to Communication Manager Christian Hill. We will update this post if and when he responds.