Several major U.S. hospitals have publicly disclosed superbug outbreaks linked to contaminated Olympus scopes. The outbreaks are documented in CDC reports, federal investigations, and a U.S. Senate report. If your procedure happened at one of these hospitals, much of the work of proving how you were exposed has already been done by federal investigators.
But this is not an exclusive list. Olympus scopes were used in thousands of hospitals across the country, and outbreaks were also documented at smaller facilities whose contamination events stayed inside specialty medical and regulatory channels. Even if your hospital is not named below, you may still have a case — the question is whether a contaminated Olympus scope was used in your procedure, not whether your hospital was famous for it.
In most product liability cases, a plaintiff has to prove that a specific product caused a specific injury. With Olympus scope cases, that work is unusually well documented. Federal investigators, state health departments, hospital epidemiologists, and the CDC have already produced public reports tracing specific outbreaks to specific Olympus scopes used at named hospitals.
That existing record is valuable for two reasons. First, it gives a patient at a confirmed-outbreak hospital a head start on proving causation — the hospital, the device, and the bacteria are already linked in published government reports. Second, it gives every other patient strong supporting evidence for the broader claim that Olympus's reprocessing instructions were inadequate, even when followed.
The list below covers the U.S. outbreaks that are most thoroughly documented in the federal record. For each one, we summarize what happened, what was confirmed, and what it means for patients. None of this is exhaustive: each outbreak generated its own court filings and federal records that go far beyond what fits on a single page. None of those materials, however, were positioned where ordinary patients were likely to encounter them — that did not happen until the FDA's June 2025 import alert and the consumer news coverage that followed in 2025 and 2026.
Virginia Mason Medical Center is the earliest large U.S. outbreak in the public record. Between 2012 and 2014, at least 39 patients developed infections after ERCP procedures performed with Olympus duodenoscopes. Eighteen of those patients later died.
Hospital infection-control investigators traced the outbreak to the elevator channel of the duodenoscopes themselves. Cultures from the scopes grew the same drug-resistant E. coli that was making the patients sick — even after the scopes had completed full high-level disinfection following Olympus's own instructions. That finding was foundational. It established for the first time, in U.S. records, that the contamination problem was a design defect in the scope, not a hospital cleaning error.
The Virginia Mason outbreak is documented in detail in the 2016 U.S. Senate Preventable Tragedies report and in subsequent CDC and FDA filings. Patients treated at Virginia Mason during this period and later diagnosed with antibiotic-resistant infections after an ERCP have a clear evidentiary path to a case.
UCLA publicly disclosed that 179 patients may have been exposed to CRE superbugs through contaminated Olympus duodenoscopes. Seven patients were confirmed infected. Two patients died. The disclosure was reported in local and trade press at the time and remains one of the most thoroughly documented duodenoscope contamination events in the federal record.
UCLA's investigation found that even scopes that had completed full high-level disinfection per Olympus's instructions were still culturing CRE. The hospital eventually moved to gas sterilization and disposable scope caps. The contamination story remained largely confined to specialty medical and regulatory channels until the FDA's June 2025 import alert and the consumer news coverage that followed in 2025 and 2026 made it broadly accessible to ordinary patients.
Within weeks of the UCLA disclosure, Cedars-Sinai announced its own exposure event affecting approximately 68 patients. The Cedars-Sinai outbreak was traced to the same duodenoscope model line, with cultures again confirming drug-resistant bacteria persisting on scopes that had completed full reprocessing.
Cedars-Sinai is one of the largest hospital systems in the country. Its public confirmation of the same problem occurring weeks after UCLA was a major data point for federal regulators and contributed directly to the FDA's January 2016 safety communication acknowledging that standard cleaning was insufficient.
The Senate Preventable Tragedies report identified at least 25 separate U.S. and European outbreaks linked to contaminated duodenoscopes between 2012 and 2015 alone. Beyond the three large California and Washington outbreaks, the report and subsequent FDA records document events at hospitals across the country, including:
Beyond named hospitals, FDA adverse event reports filed under the agency's MAUDE database log thousands of additional individual infection reports tied to Olympus scopes from facilities across the country. Many of these reports involve smaller hospitals and surgery centers where no public news coverage ever appeared.
The practical takeaway: do not assume your case is weaker because your hospital is not famous. Olympus's own quality records, the FDA's MAUDE database, and the patient's specific medical record are the foundation of a case — not whether the hospital made the local news.
The list of named-outbreak hospitals on this page is partial. The full picture lives in records that we can request as part of building your case: hospital infection control logs, scope reprocessing records, device serial numbers, FDA MAUDE adverse event reports, state department of health filings, and CDC outbreak investigation records.
If you suspect a contaminated Olympus scope caused your infection, the path forward is the same whether your hospital is on the list above or not:
We represent patients nationwide, regardless of where the procedure happened. If your hospital was on the named list, that is a head start. If it was not, that is not the end of the story.
Common questions about hospital outbreaks and what they mean for individual patient cases.
Several U.S. hospitals have publicly confirmed Olympus scope outbreaks, including UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center, Cedars-Sinai, Virginia Mason Medical Center, and others described on this page. But the public list is incomplete. Olympus scopes were sold to thousands of hospitals nationwide, and many outbreaks were never publicly disclosed. Even if your hospital is not on the public list, the right question is what scope was used in your specific procedure — not whether the hospital made the news.
When a hospital is part of a confirmed outbreak, much of the evidentiary work has already been done. CDC investigators, hospital epidemiologists, and federal regulators have already collected scope cultures, identified the specific bacteria, and tied them to specific patients. That existing record makes it dramatically easier to connect a patient's infection to a contaminated scope. Cases at named-outbreak hospitals tend to move faster and have a stronger evidentiary foundation.
No. Small and community hospitals used Olympus scopes too. Many community hospitals had contamination events that stayed inside specialty medical and regulatory channels but are visible in FDA adverse event reports, internal hospital records, and state department of health filings. We routinely accept cases from patients treated at smaller facilities. The case turns on the medical record, not the size of the hospital.
Sometimes, yes. When a hospital cut corners on scope cleaning — understaffed reprocessing departments, skipped steps, used expired chemicals, ignored Olympus's own instructions — the hospital can be added as a co-defendant alongside Olympus. The page on hospital reprocessing negligence explains the standards hospitals are supposed to follow and what counts as a deviation. Whether to sue the hospital, Olympus, or both depends on the facts of the case.
Hospitals rarely volunteer this information. They are usually under instructions from their insurers and counsel not to discuss outbreaks publicly. That does not mean you cannot get the records. HIPAA's right of access lets you request your own medical records, and once a case is filed, formal discovery can compel the hospital to produce its infection-control reports, scope reprocessing logs, and any communications with the CDC or FDA. We handle that part.
Every factual claim on this page is supported by a verifiable public source. Click any source below to read the original.
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Browse the full library of contaminated endoscope and Olympus scope investigation pages.
Start here — overview of contaminated endoscope litigation.
How design flaws turn scopes into superbug carriers.
Colonoscopy, ERCP, bronchoscopy, upper endoscopy — what's at risk.
Timeline of FDA recalls, warnings, and import alerts.
CRE, MDRO, sepsis warning signs to watch for.
The closed-channel elevator that resists sterilization.
Duodenoscope-linked outbreaks and ERCP claims.
When routine screenings cause hospital-acquired infections.
Cleaning shortcuts that put patients at risk.
Find out in 60 seconds if you have a case.
Latest FDA actions, MDL updates, and case news.
What the June 2025 FDA Olympus import alert means for patients.
Did Olympus meet its FDA deadline? 96% completion claim, Canadian class action, and what's still outstanding.
Where Olympus scope cases stand: no MDL yet, individual filings, deadline pressure.
The drug-resistant bacteria documented in scope outbreaks, in plain English.
How to find out which scope was used on you and what records to request.
Plain-English read on filing deadlines and the discovery rule.
Olympus bronchoscope cases — pneumonia, sepsis, who qualifies.
Records and documentation that build a strong scope case.
Why scope cases are usually product liability, not malpractice.
No fees unless we recover money for you — how it works.
Whether your hospital made the public list or not, a free case review is the fastest way to know whether a contaminated Olympus scope caused your infection. We handle the records work for you. No Fees Unless We Recover Money for You.
