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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Senior Citizens Must Join Campaign to Require
Hospitals Report Staph Infections
Consumers Union urges Congress to enact HR 1174
(Murphy) to spur hospitals to reduce deadly infections
By Tucker Sutherland, Editor & Publisher
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Every day, fifty Americans die from MRSA because hospitals
arent doing enough to protect patients from these deadly
infections, - Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumers Unions
Stop Hospital Infections campaign |
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Nov. 8, 2007 The news that nearly 19,000
Americans died in 2005 from antibiotic-resistant staph infections
mostly acquired in health care facilities and that it has increased 10
fold since 1995, should be shocking and extremely alarming to senior
citizens, the most frequent visitors to healthcare settings. What is
even more shocking is that most states allow hospitals to keep
information about these infections secret, which has allowed the
infection to spread rapidly with little public notice or protection.
Seniors need to demand changes.
Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of
Consumer Reports has launched a campaign urging Congress to require
public reporting of patient infection rates.
The recent report by researchers at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) concluded that almost 95,000 people
developed Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections
that year, and that 85 percent of the infections were acquired in health
care settings.
Every day, fifty Americans die from MRSA because
hospitals arent doing enough to protect patients from these deadly
infections, said Lisa McGiffert, Director of Consumers Unions Stop
Hospital Infections campaign (www.StopHospitalInfections.org).
The public deserves to know which hospitals are doing a good job
preventing infections and keeping patients safe.
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Rates of hospitalization with MRSA infection per
100,000 population, by age group, 2004
Source: AHRQ, Center for Delivery, Organization, and
Markets, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, Nationwide Inpatient
Sample, 2004
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HR 1174, a bipartisan measure sponsored by Rep. Tim
Murphy, R-PA, would require the public reporting by hospitals and
surgical centers of one or more types of healthcare-acquired infections.
Under the bill, the Secretary of Health and Human Services would
determine which of the major types of infections would need to be
reported.
HHS would submit an annual report to Congress on
steps being taken to reduce infections, and there would be a pilot
program to assist certain hospitals in developing anti-infection
programs.
By making infection rates public, HR 1174 will
encourage hospitals to improve patient care and ultimately save lives
and dollars, said McGiffert.
MRSA and other hospital acquired infections can
spread from patient to patient through contact with doctors and nurses
with unwashed hands, contaminated gloves and medical equipment. Numerous
studies have documented that hand hygiene compliance rates in most
hospitals are unacceptably low usually below 50 percent.
That means, on average, doctors, nurses and other
health care workers are failing to clean their hands properly over half
the time. Earlier this week, Consumers Union called on hospitals
nationwide to disclose their hand hygiene compliance rates.
The CDC has previously estimated that nearly two
million patients develop a variety of infections, including MRSA
infections, while being treated in the hospital every year. These
patients require extra care and often end up staying longer in the
hospital to recover, which adds billions of dollars to the health care
bill paid by insurers, consumers, and taxpayers annually. Nearly 100,000
people die from MRSA and other hospital-acquired infections annually.
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New Jersey Law Requires Hospitals to Report
Infection Rates Publicly
By
KaiserNetwork.org, Daily Healthcare Report
New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine (D) on October 31
signed into law a bill that requires hospitals to file quarterly reports
with the state on patient infection rates, types of infections and plans
to control infections, the
AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The information will be posted
publicly on a state Web site, according to the law (Hester,
AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/1).
The statistics eventually will allow the public to
compare infection rates at hospitals, although the site will not be
finalized for two years, Health Commissioner Fred Jacobs said. The law
requires the disclosure of surgical infections, urinary tract infections
related to catheters, pneumonia related to ventilators and blood
infections related to catheters. The law also gives the state health
department authority to expand the list.
Jacobs said the law could indicate whether some
hospitals have excessive rates of infection.
He added, "We are going to ask [hospitals], 'What
are you going to do? What is your corrective action?' Then we will
monitor the effectiveness of their plan."
Corzine said the law "will help hospitals put
procedures in place to prevent these infections and give family members
access to information they need to make informed decisions" (Campbell,
Newark Star-Ledger, 11/1). New Jersey is the 20th state to adopt a
hospital infection disclosure law (AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/1).
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In a recent report based on data collected from its
hospitals, Pennsylvania found that insurers paid nearly $46,000 more for
patients with infections than for patients without infections. Dr. John
A. Jernigan, Chief of Interventions and Evaluations at the CDC, has said
that these infections result in up to $27.5 billion in additional
hospital-related expenses annually.
In recent years,
nineteen states have passed laws requiring hospitals to disclose how
many of their patients are developing infections during treatment. The
public reporting laws are aimed at spurring hospitals to improve
infection control efforts and helping consumers make more informed
health care decisions. A hospital infection reporting law also was
approved by the New Jersey state legislature, but it has not been signed
into law yet.
So far, Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and
Vermont have produced public reports on their state hospitals infection
rates. More information about these reports can be found by
Clicking Here.
To join urge Congress to pass HR 1174, the
bipartisan measure sponsored by Rep. Tim Murphy, R-PA, requiring the
public reporting by hospitals and surgical centers of one or more types
of healthcare-acquired infections,
Click Here.
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