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The Chronicled -
THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2005
THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
New reports detail DUHS fluid mix-up
Directors’ Cup finish puts Duke in top 5 by
by
John Taddei
SEE DIRECTORS’ ON PAGE 14
Steve Veres
THE CHRONICLE
THE CHRONICLE
With its best ever finish in the Directors’ Cup standings, Duke showed it could compete with the traditional national athletic powerhouses despite financial deficiencies. Two years after athletic department officials released a mission statement thatadmitted winning the Directors’ Cup —a national competition that ranks schools’ overall athletic departments based on NCAA championship finishes—was no longer a feasible goal for the program financially, Duke has secured a top-five finish for the first time in its history. The Blue Devils captured a national in championship women’s golf, five additional topfive finishes, and 11 total top-10 finishes. Duke, currendy sits in fourth place in the standings with just the results from the College World Series to be added. Since Texas has clinched at least a top-four finish in baseball, it will pass Duke when the final standings are released June 29. Stanford has already clinched its llth-straight Directors’ Cup, sponsored by the United States Sports Academy, followed by UCLA and Michigan. In addition, Duke will finish first among schools in the ACC
ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST YEAR, ISSUE S6
Randolph declares
Following in the footsteps of a handful of players who left Duke early, Shavlik Randolph announced his decision to remain in the NBA draft Tuesday. He does not plan to return to the Blue Devils if he is not drafted June 28.
Duke administrators announced Monday that an independent analysis concluded that hydraulic fluid accidentally used in place of detergent to wash surgical tools last fall did not compromise the sterilization process of the instruments. Details of the analysis were included in a letter sent to the approximately 3,800 patients who were exposed to the tainted tools at Duke-run Durham Regional Hospital and Duke Health Raleigh in November and December 2004. The analysis was performed by Dr. William Rutala, a University of North Carolina professor and director of the Statewide Program in Infection Control and Epidemiology at the UNC School ofMedicine. He said he recreated the set-up using samples of the used hydraulic fluid provided by Duke. “In these laboratory experiments, we found that replacing cleaning detergent with hydraulic fluid did not alter the effectiveness of the sterilization process as high numbers of clinically-relevant bacteria and standard test spores... were completely inactivated,” Rutala said in the letter. The letter—the second sent to the affected patients—came on the heels of a report released
June
16 by the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services that said Duke “failed to ensure quality and safety of supplies” and put patients in “immediate Jeopardy.” CMS officials have since said Duke is now in full compliance with its standards. Several patients have stepped forward and blamed post-operative problems on the tools. The News and Observer reported that 50 patients have contacted lawyers about the incident. Dr. Victor Dzau, president and CEO of Duke University Health System and chancellor for Health Affairs, spoke publicly for the first time about the incident and patients’ responses June 15. “No causal connection has been established between any of these patients’ outcomes and instruments exposed to the fluid,” Dzau said. “I want to assure you that the health and welfare of our patients will always be our top priority.” According to the CMS report, the root of the incident was an Automatic Elevator Co. employee who, while inspecting an elevator at Duke Health Raleigh, drained hydraulic fluid into empty drums labeled as containing detergent last September. SEE FLUID ON PAGE 8
Angelica, union reach agreement by
Tiffany Webber THE
CHRONICLE
In what many are hailing as a victory, Angelica Corp. —the industrial laundry service Duke University Health System contracts—has reached an agreement with the workers’ union UNITE HERE. As a result of the agreement, workers at non-unionized Angelica plants, such as the local Durham plant, can decide if and how to unionize without facing any pressure from company management. The agreement stipulates that non-unionized plants will use a “card check” campaign, as opposed to a secret ballot campaign, when deciding whether to unionize under UNITE HERE, which currendy represents workers at 23 of Angelica’s 35 plants nationwide. A card check requires workers who support unionizing under
UNITE HERE to sign their alliance with the union publicly. A third party —separate from Angelica management, the workers and the union—will then determine if the signatures are authentic and declare whether a majority of the workers support joining UNITE HERE. If a majority supports unionization, all of the workers —regardless of their vote—will then be represented by the union. Harris Raynor, international vice president and director of the southern region for UNITE HERE, said a card check campaign allows for workers to make a “much more affirmative” decision. Unlike a secret ballot campaign, he explained, a card check creates a more proactive and open allegiance with a union. SEE ANGELICA ON PAGE 7
Under the agreement between Angelica Corp. and UNITE HERE, workers at Angelica's Durham plant will have the chance to vote for unionization.