Allina Health is alerting patients over improper injections

Allina health says it's tracking down 161 patients who were treated at its Bandana Square clinic dermatology department dating back to October 2017. The health system says the patients received injections from a nurse practitioner who violated company protocol by repeatedly using single-dose syringes.

Allina says in all cases of multiple injections with the same syringe, the attached needle was new and sterile. Allina maintains the risk of infection is "very low." Still it's recommending free infectious disease testing for the patients who could have been exposed.

"Out of an abundance of caution we want to make sure that these patients know what happened and that we take all appropriate precautions," said Allina spokesman David Kanihan.

Allina is apologizing for the situation. The company says the nurse is no longer employed by Allina Health and that a review is underway to help ensure the problem never happens again.

"I don't want to speculate on what this nurses thought process was, but I will say, it's a clear violation of standard practice," Kanihan said.