A number of operating rooms at Windsor Regional Hospital’s Ouellette Campus have been closed down due to a sterilizer equipment failure.

The pressure release valves that supply and regulate the steam pressure to sterilizers in the medical device reprocessing department need to be replaced, according to hospital spokesperson Linda McLean.

“We have enough steam to run one of the sterilizers but as a result of the stress to system and the fact the replacement parts will be here Friday,” said McLean in an email. “We are erring on the side of caution and patient safety to close down the majority of the operating rooms until the system is returned to full capacity.

“We do not have redundant or multiple systems within our existing infrastructure. “

There are some ‘stand-alone’ sterilizer units that run on an independent line, so emergent cases will still be seen, McLean says.

Equipment cannot be sterilized and transported from another facility.

The replacement parts are scheduled to arrive early Friday, and the sterilizers should be fixed and back operational by midnight Friday or early Saturday morning after necessary testing, according to McLean.

McLean says the surgical team has been and will continue to work on accommodating as many patients as possible at the Metropolitan campus for surgery.

The hospital will be communicating with the impacted patients directly and working with their surgeons to rebook their surgeries as soon as possible.