By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center is among the many medical facilities in at least 5 states that were sent counterfeit 3M N95 masks.
OMC’s Chief Financial Officer Lorraine Cannon says they were notified Saturday night by the Washington State Hospital Association about the counterfeits.
“We have taken 1600 masks out of circulation. We were given lot numbers of the masks we should be looking for. We did not look to see if they were counterfeit. We took every mask we had with those two lot numbers out. So we just, we went on the side of caution and we took everything out.”
Cannon says no counterfeits were ever used by OMC staff or patients.
Laci Johnson from Forks Community Hospital says they found 800 of the phony masks in their stock and pulled them all out of circulation.
Both hospitals say they have ample supplies of masks and this won’t cause a shortage for them.
Federal authorities are investigating the massive counterfeit operation, saying the foreign-made knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot and could put health care workers at grave risk if not rooted out.