11,600 patients got infections in Pa. hospitals

[Guest guest]

Medica. MedicalConspiracies@googlegrolConspiracies (AT) googl (DOT) com

 

 

http://news./s/usatoday/20050713/bs_usatoday/11600patientsgotinfections\

inpahospitals

 

11,600 patients got infections in Pa. hospitals

 

By Julie Appleby, USA TODAY Wed Jul 13, 6:40 AM ET

 

Pennsylvania on Wednesday became the first state to publicly report

the toll hospital infections take, saying that more than 11,600

patients got infections while in hospitals last year. Those led to an

additional 1,500 deaths and $2 billion in hospital charges.

 

" The consequences clearly are huge, " says Marc Volavka, executive

director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, an

independent state agency that published the data. " Everyone is paying

the bill. "

 

Advocates of public reporting of hospital infection rates, such as

Consumers Union, say such efforts will spur hospitals to improve

efforts to prevent infections, just as reporting of coronary bypass

surgery outcomes in New York led to a reduction in the death rate.

 

Infections acquired by patients in hospitals - which can be caused by

a number of things, including staff failing to wash their hands - are

estimated to affect 2 million patients annually, resulting in 90,000

deaths, according to a review published in the

New England Journal of Medicine.

 

" Our goal is to get the data out in the public realm as a means of

self-improvement in the industry, " says Betsy Imholz of Consumers Union.

 

Four other states - Missouri, Florida, Illinois and Virginia -

currently have laws requiring hospitals to publicly disclose infection

rates. New York this month passed a similar bill which awaits the

governor's approval. Medicare plans to include information about

surgical infections on its Hospital Compare Web site later this year,

says Mark McClellan, the head of the agency that oversees Medicare.

 

" The Pennsylvania report is more evidence that there are opportunities

to improve quality, reduce cost and, most important, save lives

through initiatives to reduce hospital infections, " McClellan says.

 

Dozens of other states considered such bills this year, but most did

not pass. The hospital industry has traditionally been leery of public

reporting of quality data, saying it can be misleading if the wrong

measurements are taken.

 

" Hospitals want to share good, reliable information that doesn't

overstate or understate the infection problem, " says Nancy Foster of

the American Hospital Association, adding the association is helping

develop measures, which generally are not tallies of infection.

 

The Pennsylvania report shows infections struck 7.5 patients per 1,000

and likely underestimates the true number, says Volavka, because not

all of the state's 173 hospitals reported data. Sixteen, including

several large hospitals, reported having no infections last year.

 

The state's hospital association, which opposed some of the measures

the council initially wanted to include in 2003, said Tuesday it

welcomed the study results.

 

" Hospitals in Pennsylvania are involved in numerous activities aimed

to eliminate hospital-acquired infections of all types, " says Carolyn

Scanlan, head of the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of

Pennsylvania in a written statement.