Home › News › Local News
Fumigation completed at St. John's hospital
VIDEO
Sabre Technical Services President and CEO John Mason talks about the process his company will use to fumigate St. John''s Regional Medical Center and rid it of mold.
Watch now »
STORY TOOLS 
More from Local NewsThe giant white tarp covering St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard came down Monday as workers completed fumigating for mold.
"All has gone as planned," said Rita O'Connor, spokeswoman for the Oxnard hospital, which expects to begin moving equipment back in this evening.
Plans to reopen the busy medical center are still on track for Friday, pending approval from the California Department of Public Health, she said. The 265-bed hospital has been closed since Aug. 14. The hospital's adjoining medical office building reopened Monday morning.
The fumigation process to eliminate a lingering mold problem was scheduled to begin Friday night but was delayed a day because of difficulties getting the relative humidity inside the 350,000-square-foot building to required levels.
Just after midnight Saturday, Sabre Technical Services workers began pumping chlorine dioxide gas inside the multistory medical center for about 24 hours. The gas was then neutralized with hydrogen peroxide for an additional 10 to 12 hours, and the interior was scrubbed.
Sabre Technical Services and the Environmental Protection Agency are conducting final air quality tests today. Test spore strips placed at 860 locations throughout the hospital are also being examined to gauge the fumigation's effectiveness.
Hospital supplies and equipment will be brought back in and a limited number of staff members are expected to begin moving back in this evening, O'Connor said.
The closure has affected nearby hospitals, but people who need healthcare are still getting it, officials say. Pleasant Valley Hospital, St. John's sister facility in Camarillo, has absorbed the bulk of transferred patients.
"Everyone is working together, and so far it hasn't been too much of a strain," said Barry Fisher, administrator of Ventura County Emergency Medical Services. "So far, so good."
(Requires free registration.)
Comments on this site are to be used for the discussion and/or debate of issues related to our stories and editorials.
Comments should not stray from the subject of the story or editorial.
We don't allow the following:
We reserve the right to delete comments and/or ban users for these or other reasons we deem necessary.
Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them. You agree not to post comments that are off topic, defamatory, obscene, abusive, threatening or an invasion of privacy. Violators may be banned. Click here for our full user agreement.