Santa Clara County hospitals have illegally dumped tons of biohazardous waste, including prescription drugs, human tissue and vials containing blood, county prosecutors said.

One photo appeared to show a discarded umbilical cord or part of a human organ, among piles of trash with soiled towels, used syringes, unemptied prescription vials and over-the-counter drugs, including fentanyl, and medical equipment, officials said in a news release Thursday. Hundreds of documents with unredacted personal patient information were also found.

"The County's health and hospital system is run with taxpayer dollars," Dist. Atty. Jeff Rosen said in the release. "The public needs to know what happened, and the County will not get a free pass when it comes to environmental protection and consumer privacy laws."

The Santa Clara Valley Healthcare system — which is second only to L.A. County's as the largest county-run health system in California — includes Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, O'Connor Hospital and St. Louise Regional Hospital.

District attorney investigators covertly intercepted eight deliveries of garbage compactors from the three county hospitals starting in November 2023, Bud Porter, a supervising deputy district attorney, told The Times in an interview Thursday. Each garbage compactor — which holds about four tons — was contaminated with medical and hazardous waste, he said.

"We have a pretty compelling amount of evidence," Porter said.

Two of the hospitals empty their compactors three times a week, he said, while one is emptied once a week. At least 1,000 tons of contaminated trash were disposed of by the hospitals over the last year, he estimated.

"Based on the pattern of violations found during the eight waste inspections, it is estimated that tens of thousands of items of medical and hazardous waste were illegally disposed of in the trash by the three County hospitals in the last year," the district attorney's office said.

Civil penalties for improper dumping include fines up to $70,000 per disposal of hazardous waste and up to $10,000 per disposal of medical waste.

The district attorney's office decided to open an investigation into the county hospitals after seeing the $49-million settlement from Kaiser Permanente in September 2023 for mismanagement of medical waste and patient information — similar to what he saw with the county hospitals, Porter said. He could not say how long the hospitals had been dumping materials before the investigation began, but said the behavior was consistent between inspections.

"Santa Clara Valley Healthcare (SCVH) understands the immense efforts and work invested by the District Attorney's Office in reviewing medical and hazardous waste disposal and is taking the matter very seriously," the hospital system said in a statement. "We are committed to adopting industry best-practices to prevent future occurrences and upon learning of the details three weeks ago, immediately began implementing corrective actions to address the concerns, including reviewing and updating policies, creating an audit review process, and designating department liaisons to quickly facilitate necessary changes."

_____

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.