WP,pg1: Data Show Scourge of Hospital Infections

[DeepModem Mom]

Data Show Scourge of Hospital Infections

By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 13, 2005; Page A01


Nearly 12,000 Pennsylvanians contracted infections during a hospital stay in 2004, costing an extra $2 billion in care and at least 1,500 preventable deaths, according to state figures released yesterday that officials say represent a conservative measure of one of the deadliest problems in modern medicine.

As the first state to collect data on hospital-acquired infections, Pennsylvania has put hard numbers on a troubling phenomenon that until now has only been estimated. Even so, the true infection rate and cost is probably much higher, the report's authors said, because of underreporting by many hospitals. The actual tally could be as high as 115,000 infections, based on billing claims the hospitals submitted to insurers, the report said.

"Pennsylvania is 4 percent of the population, which means you may have an additional 100 people dying per day" nationwide because of hospital-acquired infections, said Marc P. Volavka, executive director of the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, the agency that issued the report. "That comes to an additional $50 billion" in medical charges in the United States annually, he said.

As health care spending has skyrocketed, employers, which often pay the bills, have begun pressing hospitals to work to reduce a variety of mistakes -- from incorrect medications to avoidable infections -- to improve care and reduce costs. As part of that effort, Pennsylvania began last year to require every acute care hospital to report the number of infections contracted in the hospital in four major categories: surgical, bloodstream, pneumonia and urinary tract....

***

Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta has estimated that as many as 2 million infections are acquired in hospitals each year, resulting in 90,000 deaths, said Denise Cardo, director of the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071201555.html?sub=AR

[blm]

1. Kerry made this a talking point on healthcare and how tougher oversight

and preventive protocol would end up REDUCING costs for hospitals and the risk to hospital staff.

The media preferred giving hours of airtime to Swiftliars for Bush instead of REAL LIFE ISSUES for Americans and their families and the economy.

[MountainLaurel]

2. Wasn't there a discussion here

Just recently about the issue of infections in hospitals, following Andy's death?

Fascinating topic: I wonder what factors are leading to this problem?

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Kicking to see if anyone recalls a discussion re. Andy --

[Pastiche423]

9. Maybe you are thinking about Jeff (nostamj)?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=3447350

[hollowdweller]

4. Too few staff working too many hours. My wife got one when she was in.

They had to put her on some wicked antibiotics and after she took them she became lactose intolerant. Must have killed all the good bacteria in her stomach too.

[rainbow4321]

7. Poor handwashing, longer hospital stays b/c patients are sicker

Staff/doctors going from room to room without washing their hands is the biggest problem..slow diagnosis is another. Someone may be a non-isolation patient and then we find out a few days later, oops, they have MRSA or something else that they SHOULD have had required isolation (staff to use gowns/gloves, etc...) started.

The patients that we see are so, so, so much sicker and older than before. Which means they are in the hosptial longer with each stay, increasing the amount of time that they are exposed to the risk of catching something..it's no longer a place where people are in and out within 2-3 days. They are there for weeks/months at a time, they go back to a long term care facility <more exposure to infections> only to return to the hospital within a month for another acute problem. Multi system/organ failure-illnesses are the norm now...you get one illness/problem fixed and something else starts to go wrong.

It's not going to get any better...the medical technology that is helping people live well into their 90's doesn't always mean they will live to be HEALTHY and in their 90's. Families, for the most part, are more into **quantity** and not quality of life when it comes to their loved ones.

[w8liftinglady]

10. I'll second that...

The majority of my patients have MRSA,VRE,or any number of other infections(by the time they get to my rehab unit)-we treat them all like they have one.

[MissB]

5. I think it was one of BenBurch's threads in GD.

But I'm too lazy to search. :evilfrown:

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I searched but could find nothing specific to this issue -- benburch...

of course, reported on his site that Andy had his surgery on May 26, and was in the hospital with an infection June 23.

[JackDragna]

8. Another big problem: bacterial resistance

We've used so many of our antibiotics that hospitals are now rife with resistant strains. Infections that could be fought with lower-level antibiotics now require the last-line-of-defense stuff hospitals used to only use in case of very serious infections.

[kestrel91316]

11. Lies, lies!!! Time to cut funding to the CDC, Georgie!

[Straight Shooter]

12. When I had surgery in 2002, my biggest fear was of infection.

I was so fortunate, despite major surgery, that nothing opportunistic got ahold of me. I was in a wonderful hospital, OHSU in Portland, Oregon, but they can't control everything, especially considering my roommate had nonstop guests and who knows what they might have been bringing into the room.

Like I said, very fortunate indeed.