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Interview with Dr. Peter Pronovost, medical director of the Quality and Safety Research Group at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and promoter of a patient safety checklist for doctors.
Author Rosemary Gibson says when medical care is overused, it can cost patients their health and their savings. To attend Rosemary's March 9th talk at Health Care for All, 30 Winter St., e-mail Deb Wachenheim: dwachenheim@hcfama.org.
Infections caused by gram-negative bacteria becoming impossible to treat.
Preventing harm will save money
Reusing one-time-use tools cuts waste, stirs some concern
If the New Hampshire Hospital Association has its way, the euphemistically named New Hampshire Health Care Quality Assurance Commission will continue operating without accountability to the public, in closed and secretive sessions and with only hospital and human services representation. That's a dangerous problem for consumers of health care and for patient safety.
For some medical conditions, the cost of care does not directly correlate to the quality of care according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Sepsis and pneumonia, two infections that can often be prevented with tight infection control practices in hospitals, killed 48,000 patients and added $8.1 billion to heath care costs in 2006 alone, according to a study published today in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
The State of Iowa does not require public reporting of hospital infection rates, leaving patients in the dark.
Review of Consumer Reports' March hospital infection report.
"Hospitals can reduce medical errors and cut unnecessary hospital-related infections with the use of a checklist."
"The Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., confirmed Thursday that it is conducting an inquiry into Rep. John P. Murtha’s gallbladder surgery and his medical care there in late January."
"For years, doctors held the belief that these infections were inevitable and they became an accepted risk of hospital care. Now, research has shown the vast majority of these infections are preventable."
Advocates say most cases preventable; state legislation in committee
The National Naval Medical Center has opened a review of the surgical care provided to the late Congressman John Murtha after the Pennsylvania Democrat died following surgery, a senior U.S. military official told CNN Wednesday.
More California women dying from pregnancy complications; state holds on to report
Map of what each state is doing with federal money for health care acquired infectin prevention.
Consumer Reports recently reviewed hospitals around the country and found some medical centers are still slipping.
When patients enter intensive care units central lines are vital to life. These long, flexible catheters deliver essential medications, nutrition and fluids. But they can just as quickly deliver deadly bacteria into your bloodstream. Consumer Reports researched central line blood stream infection data on 926 hospitals in 43 states including Michigan.
A recent report compiled by Consumers Union comparing infection rates reported by hospitals in 2008 showed that Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx had 44% fewer infections than the national average.
Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took the unusual step of publicly supporting CU’s efforts.
Report from a collaboration of health care providers in Iowa claims decreases in infection rates but fails to provide details by hospital. Reporting is voluntary so not all hospitals have provided information.
The death Monday of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) after complications from gallbladder surgery raises questions about whether the lawmaker was among the nearly 100,000 people who die in U.S. hospitals annually due to preventable medical errors.
A new survey out shows a handful of Bay Area hospitals score poorly when it comes to protecting their patients from deadly bloodstream infections.
Jon Stewart interviews Atul Gawande on his two-minute hospital checklist and asks him,"What if we called hospital infections terrorists?"
Dallas-based Methodist Health System had two hospitals with bloodstream infection rates double the national average, according to a Consumer Reports study.
Consumer Reports has made an online system available which gives consumers access to hospital infection rates.
A comparison by Consumer Reports of Mercy with hospitals in Turlock and Modesto shows Mercy lags in all areas, including the average cost of a hospital stay.
The Consumer Reports Hospital Ratings study, released Tuesday, says North General Hospital's so-called central line infection rate was 394% worse than the national average - and the worst in the city.
At a conference in Scotland, experts warned that containing C-Difficile infections requires vigilance. "In Scotland C. diff has overtaken MRSA as the leading cause of deaths from hospital-acquired infections, and it is rapidly becoming resistant to antibiotic treatment."
Pennsylvania hospitals reported more than 13,000 preventable infections in the second half of 2008, according to a report published Tuesday by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
The 97-page report compared two types of hospital-acquired infections on a hospital-by-hospital basis: catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) and central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI).
A new treatment for C-Difficile or Clostridium difficilecould dramatically reduce the recurrence of the infection.
California's largest health insurer is teaming with hospitals and doctors throughout the state to better share ways to improve patient safety and cut costs, leaders of the initiative said Tuesday.
Excerpt: "While the world attempts to control the current pandemic of H1N1 influenza virus infection, the impact of a previous pandemic of methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection (ie, widespread endemicity in hospitals) continues virtually unnoticed."
By mapping MRSA cases in Europe, researchers were able to determine that MRSA occurs in geopgraphical clusters. They conclude that screening patients for MRSA is an effective strategy for limiting the spread which is mainly through health care networks and not in communities.
Hosted by the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) sponsored this webinar where speakers presented on Tennessee's infection reporting system and using the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)
NH plans to make medical errors and hospital infection information available to the public but does not have a date that they will be available. A very compelling video of medical error victim is also on this page.
MRSA is mainly spread by patients moving between hospitals, Dutch researchers have said.
Preventing the resistant staph infection could lower readmission and mortality rates and save hospitals thousands in costs associated with caring for readmitted patients.
That's actually lower than rates of hospital infections in other states.
Dr. William Jarvas discusses other countries that have had success with active detection and isolation (ADI) to prevent the spread of MRSA.
"A team of researchers at Queen’s University in Kingston has proven scientifically that shared hospital rooms are a culprit in spreading superbugs. "
Researchers mapped the spread of MRSA and found it in clusters throughout Europe. They recommend screening of patients who are admitted to more than one hospital in Europe in order to contain its spread.
KY physician Kevin Kavenaugh makes a case for keeping the provisions in the health care reform bills that relate to public reporting of hospital acquired conditions and to Medicaid adopting Medicare rules on nonpayment of hospital acquired conditions.
Women are very vulnerable to infection before a c-section. A sealant is being used to keep bacteria from moving into the surgery site.
The Ohio Hospital Compare site is believed to be the first in the nation to report hospital-specific infection rates caused by antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria and an intestinal bug called clostridium difficile, or c. diff, said Lisa McGiffert of Consumers Union. The state is also the first to publish infections from C-section surgeries.
A December 2008 report by Health Affairs does find "unmistakable progress," despite setbacks. Critics say mandatory disclosure of medical errors is the key to breakthrough safety improvement.
A new law goes into effect this week requiring that all Maine hospitals screen high-risk patients for a drug-resistant bacterial infection called MRSA-Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The law requires hospitals to screen for MRSA but does not dictate further action, such as isolation, precaution, and treatment if a patient is diagnosed.
A condition that can result from hospital-borne infections is killing Canadians at a higher rate than strokes and heart attacks, according to a report released Thursday. Sepsis is the body's response to severe infection.
Scientist in the UK are going to use DNA as a way to track the origins of superbugs.
Report: Canada has high rate of deaths due to sepsis.
This is a report on data collected from 2006-2008.
Reuters reports on a Duke University study that finds surgical site infections due to MRSA led to a 7-fold increased risk of death, a 35-fold increased risk of hospital readmission, more than 3 weeks of additional hospitalization, and more than $60,000 of additional charges compared to uninfected controls.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimate 7 percent of the state’s nursing home residents developed bed sores from 2007 to 2008. During the same time period, the state had the third-highest ranking for pressure ulcers in the country.
Leapfrog sites only five of U.S. News' 21 best hospitals. View Leapfrogs press release on the top hospitals list.
"The caseload of patients with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA, rose nearly fourfold from 1999 to 2007, according to the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development."
The number of MRSA infections increased "more than four-fold, from about 13,000 cases in 1999 to about 52,000 cases in 2007."
Infection is the biggest single cause of death in hospital intensive care units, according to a new worldwide study.
A study published in the December 2nd Journal of the American Medical Assn. by an international group of researchers examined data on 13,796 adult patients from 1,265 hospitals in 75 countries who were unlucky enough to be in an intensive care unit on May 8, 2007. Here’s a summary of what they found: Fifty-one percent of ICU patients had some sort of infection, the longer you’re in the hospital, the more likely you are to become infected. The mortality rate for ICU patients with an infection was 25%, compared with 11% for patients without an infection. Infection rates in North America were slightly below average, at 48%, but the lowest rate was in Africa, at 46%. The highest infection rate was 60%, found in Central and South America.
Health professionals spend many thousands of hours training to cure disease. But they can learn how to stop the spread of deadly hospital infections in just a few minutes, by learning five steps for putting lines (that is, tubes) into patients’ bodies.
The policy was approved by the hospital's Infection Control Committee, based on research studies that show that multi drug resistant organisms and other harmful bacteria remain on clothing, such as neckties.
To Err Is Human jump-started a movement to improve patient safety. How far have we come? Where do we go from here? Five patient safety "stakeholders" were interviewed for this article, including the Director of Consumers Union Safe Patient Project, Lisa McGiffert.
The article states that these reductions are a result of "pressure from government regulators and patient groups, as well as a shift in doctors’ attitudes, is starting to make medical care safer."
The forum was called "To Err is Human, to Delay is Deadly" in order to highlight the lack of progress the U.S. health care system has made since the Institute of Medicine's report "To Err is Human."
Interview with Don Berwick, President of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement on the quality of care and patient safety.
Maryland state officials said yesterday that they are creating teams of staff members at hospitals across the state to secretly monitor their colleagues' hand-washing habits as part of a first-of-its-kind program. The monitors will contribute to a statewide report on hand washing.
The number of cases of the hospital bug C.diff could be twice as high as previously thought as current tests used by the NHS are failing to pick up the infection, experts have claimed.
Healthcare workers (HCWs) who roam from patient to patient in a hospital ward may play a disproportionate role in spreading pathogens.
A new documentary film, "Money-Driven Medicine", tackles the economic underpinnings of an American healthcare system that kills four times as many people through medical error and preventable infections as die in highway accident. Consumers Union has encouraged activists to view this film and take action to make our health care system safer.
The spread of MRSA, a potentially lethal infection that modern medicine can't seem to beat. But are Maine's hospitals doing all they can to fight the problem?
“Money-Driven Medicine” examines the medical industrial complex, and what’s wrong with our healthcare system. Watch the movie for free here until November 10 and sign our petition for reform.
When you are very sick, you go to the hospital to get better. But what if the hospital you choose actually makes you sicker, or even kills you? Watch patient safety activist and former actress, Alicia Cole, tell her story about getting a serious hospital-acquired infection that changed her life forever.
For decades, the U.S. health care system has paid doctors and hospitals by the services performed, even if those services harmed the patient. Beginning in October 2008, Medicare will no longer pay for some major hospital mistakes.
Broward General Medical Center patients received reused IV bags and have tested positive for some infectious diseases.
The New Jersey Health Department has released the 2009 Hospital Performance Report.
Technology could potentially slash number of hospital-related infections
CT receives stimulus funds for hospital infection reduction
The Pennsylvania state agency (Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council) that publishes health care outcomes like infections for more than 50 types of treatments and surgery at hospitals, has shown the state that publishing hospitals can help them improve care, and that good medical treatment is often less expensive than bad care.
"There is an emerging literature on the role of bacterial infections in illness and deaths in this flu, and an emerging consensus that bacterial infections are playing a bigger and more serious role than was thought at first."
Electronic Medical software has helped detect Sepsis in a patient saving time and lives due to early detection.
After nearly losing her husband to a dangerous hospital-acquired staph infection, Mary Petty wants to lift the "veil of secrecy" shrouding methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
Of 11 facilities cited by the state, about half were penalized for leaving objects in patients after surgery.
MRSA is believed to be transferred to pets and then back to humans.
Readmission rates were lower, but some death rates were up
Woman enters hospital with broken arms and dies of a catheter-related infection.
"Detection and eradication of meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) represents a public health priority worldwide."
"The American hospital, the center of health care, is a cottage industry in the post-industrial world, and we can save billions of dollars by bringing them into the modern world."- Clare Crawford Mason.
Nancy Metcalf, Consumer Reports said: "We surveyed more than 700 nurses nationwide who work in operating rooms, emergency rooms, critical care units and other areas of the hospital."
Federal grant to start program
the savings associated with preventing MRSA infection amounted to $1.8 million a year according to Lance Peterson, MD, of NorthShore Health System in Evanston, Ill.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today announced plans to distribute $40 million to state health departments to help prevent healthcare-associated infections (HAIs).
This report is an overview of the national hand hygiene campaigns, but also regional activities, implemented in Europe since 2000.
The Joint Commission announced a new program Thursday that is designed to improve health care safety practices, starting with a rigorous approach toward hand-washing by hospital staffers.
The affected staff have since returned to work after being treated with antibiotics and testing negative for Methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus. Surgical-site infections in five out of 1,500 patients in July and August prompted the hospital to test 68 operating room staffers for staph, said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steven Shapiro.
What Mozart can teach us about suberbugs and antibiotic resistance
Lori Nerbonne, co-founder of New Hampshire Patient Voices, writes: "New Hampshire government, consumers and employers could reap a windfall in savings if they formed a collaborative that focused on health care quality and costs in New Hampshire."
Bob Wachter writes: "I remain enthusiastic about 'no pay for preventable adverse events' as a clever way to use payment policy to goose the system into focusing on patient safety prevention practices. But for 'no pay...' to make a difference, there must be evidence-based prevention strategies to implement."
Patient safety advocate Roberta Mikles, RN, challenges dialysis providers to implement best practices to ensure infection prevention.
SC state health department’s survey of infection rates shows scores of hospitals in the state.
The Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) contains over four million reports of adverse events and reflects data from 1969 to the present. Data from AERS are presented here as summary statistics. These summary statistics cover data received over the last ten years.
A dozen New Jersey hospitals are paying doctors as an incentive to save the hospitals money.
Despite an authoritative federal report 10 years ago that laid out the scope of the problem and urged the federal and state governments and the medical community to take clear and tangible steps to reduce the number of fatal medical errors, a staggering 98,000 Americans die from preventable medical errors each year and just as many from hospital-acquired infections.
Dead by mistake was researched and written by a team of journalists from across Hearst newspapers and television stations. Hearst describes medical errors as "a critical and neglected health care issue." Consumers Union's Safe Patient Project published a report on medical harm, "To Err is Human, To Delay is Deadly" in May 2009.
When Alicia Cole learned she needed surgery for benign fibroids, she did her homework on the surgeon and the hospital. "I looked at HealthGrades, Leapfrog, Hospital Compare, and other Web sites," says Cole, a 46-year-old actress from Sherman Oaks, Calif. "But one thing I didn't check was the hospital's infection rate."
Consumers Union supports nationwide “MVP” reporting: mandatory, validated (meaning hospital data is audited) and public disclosure at a facility-specific level. Most state reporting systems now divulge only statewide information, which isn't much help to consumers.
"You can't say we weren't warned. And you can't say we've done enough to address those warnings about the degree of avoidable deaths in hospitals in New York and across the country."
Six years after the “To Err is Human” report, the Washington state Legislature responded with a law mandating medical error reports. State Rep. Tom Campbell, a bill sponsor, envisioned a day when patients could click on a Web site and compare hospitals' safety records.
Multidrug-resistant bacteria can be spread in the intensive care unit by portable X-ray machines and their operators, Israeli researchers found.
The report, "Back to Basics," analyzed the results of scientific studies of treatment protocols for chronically recurring, avoidable medical errors.
A law passed in 2007 requires Delaware hospitals to report healthcare-acquired infections to the federal National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). Nineteen other states also require hospitals to report infections.
Money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will pay $1 million for infection control in ambulatory surgical centers in Maine, New Jersey, Maryland, Florida, North Carolina, Indiana, Michigan, Arkansas, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and Kansas.
Op-ed by Jim Hall, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. The Obama administration should take a lesson from the transportation safety board’s successes and establish an independent agency charged with identifying and eliminating the causes of medical error.
Letter to Editor from Lori Nerbonne thanking lawmakers for passing hospital infection and error reporting legislation.
There's a movement to make hard numbers the basis for rankings among hospitals, instead of reputation or word-of-mouth.
Surgical gloves that develop holes or leaks during a procedure appear to increase the risk of infection at the surgical site among patients who are not given antibiotics beforehand, a Swiss study reports.
Kentucky paper endorses public reporting and surveillance cultures for MRSA and HAI. "The health care industry has been reluctant to embrace the simple expedient of screening broadly for patients with MRSA; because some hospitals have refused to isolate all patients with MRSA; because too many doctors, nurses and other health professionals don't follow basic hygiene rules; because state regulation of hospitals is slipshod.
Five organizations representing the nation’s experts in infectious diseases medicine, infection prevention in healthcare settings, and public health and disease prevention announced their support for a provision requiring national reporting of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates, which is contained within the healthcare reform bill introduced by leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Some Oklahoma patients are opting for an admittedly gross procedure to kill superbugs living in their colons.
While doctors have known about C. diff for decades, recent research shows that rates are up to 20 times higher than previously thought, and more people are getting strains resistant to antibiotics.
Our state needs to take an active and aggressive policy of mandatory public reporting and tracking of HAI. Kentucky should become a leader in health care, but if Kentucky always waits for the majority of other states to act, we will be relegated to being below average.
Important new information was added today to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Hospital Compare Web site that reports how frequently patients return to a hospital after being discharged, a possible indicator of how well the facility did the first time around.
Congresswoman Jackie Speier (CA-12) held a press conference announcing her bill (HR2937) to screen for and prevent MRSA infections in hospitals.
This increased transparency is one of the great hopes among health care reformers for tackling the high cost of American medicine.
According to the report, New York hospitals have lower rates of surgical-site infections than hospitals across the rest of the nation, but the same or higher rates of bloodstream infections in intensive care units than those reported nationally.
By one estimate, more than 200 Central New Yorkers die every year from infections they caught while in the hospital.
After too much delay, the agency has put out a report revealing which hospitals in New York are more and which are less likely to discharge you with a nasty bug.
The second annual Hospital-Acquired Infections, New York State 2008 Report presents infection rates identified by hospital name and region for surgical-site infections.
Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil comments on reducing health care costs: "The president says he likes audacious goals. Here is one: ask medical providers to eliminate all hospital-acquired infections within two years."
The only economically feasible and, indeed, humane way to improve the system is to reduce the number of senseless and tragic medical errors in our hospitals. In its report, Public Citizen calls on Congress to put safety measures in place that would set the nation on course to meet the IOM’s goal of cutting the number of avoidable deaths in half in five years.
READ the report: http://www.citizen.org/documents/NPDB_Report_200907.pdf
Infection prevention through known practices provides policymakers a ready solution to the current health system failure that adds a hefty price tag to the nation’s annual health spending.
With the publication of this report, New York becomes the seventh state in the nation to publicly disclose hospital infection rates by individual hospitals.
Keene State field hockey player Erin Dallas developed a post-surgical infection following an ACL operation last December. Since that time, Dallas has been hospitalized and has had multiple operations.
Kim Sandstrom, a patient safety activist in Florida, was invited to attend a White House forum with President Obama that was aired Wednesday night on ABC. Kim's 24-year-old daughter, Diana, died from a medical error in 2004.
Many hospitals cut back on infection-control efforts, which will hurt patients and cost hospitals money.
Spot inspections at three Veterans Administration hospitals last month revealed that instruments used in colonoscopies and endoscopies were not properly disinfected, potentially exposing veterans to HIV and hepatitis.
Giving antibiotics before operation might improve safety, study finds
On July 1, the state's hospitals will receive financial incentives based on the steps taken to prevent complications, including collapsed lungs and infections of the urinary tract and in the blood.
Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) in hospitals impose significant economic consequences on the nation’s healthcare system.
The VA started a nationwide safety campaign at it's 153 medical centers calling attention to potential infection risks from improperly operating and sterilizing the equipment.
Lori Nerbonne of New Hampshire Patient Voices writes in support of a bill for funding hospital infection rate reporting and an adverse event reporting bill, which will require hospitals to report serious, completely preventable errors to the state.
The hospital failed to notify the Department of Health that a patient had died and that at least seven others suffered serious harm last year as a result of mistakes by the medical staff.
Despite growing pressure to prevent deadly hospital-acquired infections, hospitals are cutting back on protecting patients against them.
Single-patient rooms are now viewed as an important element of high-quality health care.
Consumers Union Assesses Lack of Progress Ten Years After Institute of Medicine Found Up To 98,000 Die From Preventable Errors
The Consumers Union report said lawmakers largely have failed to enact patient safety reforms recommended by a 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine that found that medical errors cost the U.S. as much as 29 billion U.S. dollars a year.
Links to hospital safety information in Iowa.
Despite a landmark report a decade ago detailing the deadly nature of the U.S. health care system, a consumer group finds that little has been done to prevent errors that cost the nation $17 billion to $29 billion and kill as many as 100,000 patients annually.
Report Shows 10-Year Effort to Curb Medical Errors Yields Few Results
Despite a decade of promises, little has been done to fix the problem of preventable medical errors that kill nearly 98,000 people in the United States each year, a consumer group said on Tuesday.
The Massachusetts Public Health Council approved regulations to implement major patient safety reforms passed last year, including public reporting of hospital infections and serious medical errors, no-pay policies for certain preventable medical errors, and requiring every hospital in the state to have a Patient and Family Advisory Council and a rapid response system that can be activated by patients and their families.
Local news coverage of hospital infection stories: Kacia Warren and Nancy Oliver from Ohio.
Employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have generated about 4,000 pages of documents assessing risks to the agency’s reputation posed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s reporting. But the CDC is not releasing those records to the public.
When Colorado passed a law requiring hospitals to publicly reveal their infection rates, lawmakers hoped it would push them to improve surgical hygiene. It seems that it's working. View report from the CO Department of Public Health and Environment.
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the availability of $50 million in stimulus resources to fight healthcare-associated infections and improve patient safety, issuing a specific challenge to hospitals to take action to reduce HAIs.
Two annual government reports released Wednesday show that progress in improving the quality of health care and narrowing health disparities among ethnic groups remains agonizingly slow, and that patient safety may actually be declining.
Some Oklahoma hospitals aren’t doing enough to prevent surgery patients from developing infections, according to a report released by Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.
Billing patients or their private insurance company for the cost of medical mistakes would change under a bill that's cleared the state Senate and is now before the Assembly. The bill would prevent hospitals from charging anyone for serious medical errors. The legislation would also require the state to make public individual hospitals' errors.
According to a new European study, ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the main cause of nosocomial infection in patients undergoing major heart surgery.
If signed by the Governor, Alabama will become the 26th state to required hospitals publicly report infection rates.
Obama said that handwashing and covering your mouth when you cough can make a huge difference in reducing transmission of the flu. The scientific consensus on handwashing backs him up.
Almost half of all hospitals in Riverside and San Bernardino counties during a one-year period did not comply with some key medical practices to prevent surgical infections, according to a report by an organization that publishes a popular consumer magazine.
A report released Monday by the nonprofit Consumers Union found some Reno-area hospitals last year often failed to follow practices proven to reduce the risk of surgical infection.
Idaho hospitals overall fared best on giving patients the right antibiotics after surgery and worst on discontinuing antibiotics 24 hours after surgery to cut down on antibiotic resistance.
Yakima Regional Medical and Cardiac Center was one of seven hospitals in the state in “low compliance” last year with a relatively simple procedure designed to prevent surgical infections. Other hospitals in low compliance in the state are Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver, Island Hospital, Lourdes Medical Center in Pasco, Tri-State Memorial Hospital in Clarkston and Enumclaw Regional Hospital Association.
The eight acute-care hospitals in San Joaquin and Calaveras counties are, if anything, inconsistent when it comes to complying with certain surgical infection prevention practices, according to a new report released Monday by Consumers Union.
Hospital-acquired infections can be reduced significantly or even eliminated with sound prevention procedures.
A new research paper from the Canadian Union of Public Employees says that governments and employers must invest in cleaning and keep services public in order to stop unnecessary suffering and deaths.
Over the past six months, 18 mothers and 19 newborns have become sick with a dangerous bacterial infection soon after being released from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, triggering a state investigation that uncovered serious problems with the hospital's infection control practices.
The state Senate today concurred unanimously with the House in passing tough new procedures to help prevent the spread of infections acquired in hospitals and other health facilities.
The Safe Injection Practices Education and Awareness Campaign focuses on the dangers of health care workers reusing needles.
Techniques that have resulted in reduction of superbugs were discussed at a meeting of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America in San Diego on Saturday.
The reduction in infection rates have occured since the public hospital system launched an aggressive patient safety agenda to reduce preventable deaths and unnecessary hospital stays. "The decline in infection rates represent more than 1,000 infections prevented and a savings of nearly $16 million in healthcare costs." said HHC President Alan D. Aviles.
Representative Campbell's legislation is an attempt to force hospitals to track drug-resistant MRSA infections and slow the bacteria's spread
A bill before the NC legislature would require hospital publicly report infection rates.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has awarded the university a $4.7 million, four-year grant from the Tobacco Settlement Fund to study the spread and control of hospital-acquired infections
Acinetobactor infected seven people at Roseland Hospital between January 26 and February 19.
Database compares incidents in S.C. hospitals to national averages
About 50 Ohio hospitals have joined a federally supported project to help stop the spread of the potentially deadly intestinal bacteria. The Ohio Hospital Association and The Ohio State University Medical Center announced last week they will lead an effort to standardize tracking of C. diff infections. Participants will test new prevention methods.
Hospitals also had their own ways to indicate when staff should don gowns, gloves, goggles and masks before entering the rooms of patients who had to be isolated because of infection or the threat of infection. Now the "isolation precaution" signs all look the same.
A bacterial infection that causes severe diarrhea, and in the worst cases can lead to death, has become rampant in hospitals and nursing homes all across the country. Now, a new, more virulent strain is affecting even healthy people.
Study finds MRSA cases in ICU reduced 50%.
Bloodstream infections caused by MRSA have dropped 50% in hospital ICUs in the last decade, according to a new study.
Amarillo health officials Wednesday released the findings of a study that details infection rates at three hospitals after the city initially attempted to conceal the information.
The rates of four common hospital-acquired infections dropped from 2006 to 2007 at Pennsylvania hospitals, according to the first report to compare annual infection rates.
The infection rate has recently doubled in both frequency and fatalities, both in Illinois and nationally, to half a million cases annually nationwide, and 300 deaths a day, according to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
Following check list leads to dramatic reductions in hospital infections in Canada.
A group of Ohio business leaders and 24 hospitals has launched what it hopes will become a statewide effort to reduce hospital medication errors and infections. Solutions for Patient Safety, as the effort is called, takes place as the state is preparing to publish hospital quality data, including some infection rates, on the Web for consumers.
Includes preventing infections while in the hospital
New bills aim to require MRSA screening and infection reporting
The Health and Human Services Department released a plan to reduce hospital infections, which kill an estimated 99,000 people a year, affect 1.7 million patients and cost nearly $20 billion.
Infections are the leading cause of preventable death among cancer patients. A report in Lancet Infectious Diseases notes there is no consensus on the best way to protect these patients. In a review of 40 studies, the authors determined that the best way to protect high-risk cancer patients is to combine preventive antibiotics and antifungal treatment with isolation and other methods.
Most Maine hospitals are taking part in a standardized hand-washing and infection reporting system that soon will begin. The idea is to enable the hospitals to compare their records with one another and share knowledge of what works best.
Beginning Thursday, legislation will be phased in requiring all 400 hospitals in the state to implement tougher infection control practices to stem outbreaks.
Ohio Hospital Association tries to stop public reporting of hospital infection rates by amending an unrelated bill at end of session.
The reporting system, which was supposed to be in place by June 1, 2008, never came about because the Legislature failed to fund the measure.
No one knows how many hospitals will participate when the program starts up in 2009. At any rate, the information will be pooled so that no individual hospital is identified.
The veterans hospital in Omaha and its counterparts nationwide are taking the rare step of testing every inpatient for a contagious, drug-resistant bacteria.
We know we should do it, but we often don't wash our hands. While for you and me it may merely mean succumbing to a cold, for health care workers, it can mean spreading bacteria to a patient.
A sloppy, uneven response by some hospitals has failed to confront the MRSA infection or adequately inform the public.
The main topics of the conference were healthcare acquired infections, never events and healthcare transparency. Lisa McGiffert (Director of Stop Hospital Infections.org) is a featured speaker.
Though c. difficile infections are not tracked nationally or at the state level in Tennessee, Georgia or Alabama, a new study shows that the incidence is higher than expected.
Health Protection Agency figures show there were 55,681 cases of C. difficile infection in patients aged 65 years and above in England in 2006 - up 8% on the previous year.
MRSA: Consumers have launched a battle against hospital secrecy and demanded aggressive steps to control infections like MRSA. But in Washington state, MRSA rates remain hidden and state initiatives to combat the drug-resistant germ have come up short.
An aggressive MRSA-screening program at Veterans Affairs medical centers has dramatically reduced infections, VA officials say. Tacoma General Hospital reports a similar success story.
Readers share their C-Diff stories on Judith Grahams blog in the Chicago Tribune.
MRSA, a drug-resistant germ, lurks in Washington hospitals, carried by patients and staff and fueled by inconsistent infection control. This stubborn germ is spreading here at an alarming rate, but no one has tracked these cases ― until now.
MRSA, MRSA everywhere. And here comes the Seattle Times with a series on the spread of the nasty infection that’s resistant to many of the most widely used antibiotics.
Hospitals Struggle to Fight Bacterial Infection Known as C. Difficile
They're important reservoirs of the bacteria known as Clostridium difficile (C. diff), which has been in the news this week.
Issues surrounding hospital-acquired infections and other medical events "that should never happen" will highlight a health care conference in Lexington next week.
Privacy curtains may spread infections
A nasty germ that wreaks havoc in people's guts is infecting hospital patients at rates much higher than previously estimated, according to a report released Tuesday.
Deadly, diarrhea-causing germs are making hospital patients sick at an accelerating rate, researchers said today at a conference in Orlando.
With all the attention on antibiotic-resistant staph, or MRSA, you may have overlooked Clostridium difficile, the nasty bacterium behind a growing number of hospital-acquired infection.
A new antibiotic being developed by a small San Diego company fared well in a clinical trial, holding promise in treating an intestinal superbug that is commonly spread in hospitals and is becoming more deadly.
As many as 13 out of every 1,000 hospital patients are infected with Clostridium difficile, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology reported.
Gov. Schwarzenegger last month signed two bills that he said will help control hospital infections and lower health care costs by shortening patient stays and reducing avoidable deaths and illnesses.
Blood stored for more than 4 weeks tripled the likelihood of infection in the hospital compared with fresher blood, researchers say.
Patients sent to U.S. due to bed shortages here return with dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria
Kelly Walkinshaw, RN, BSN, has been honored by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. (APIC), for her success in reducing MRSA rates among Intensive Care Unit (ICU) patients at Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall, Michigan.
Hoping to improve infection control in hospitals, the nation’s top epidemiological societies joined Wednesday with the American Hospital Association and the Joint Commission, which accredits hospitals, to issue a compendium of guidelines for preventing six lethal conditions.
Healthcare groups yesterday endorsed recommendations in a campaign to intensify hospitals' efforts to prevent infections that contribute to an estimated 99,000 patient deaths a year in the United States.
New federal regulations target 11 hospital-acquired conditions that are considered reasonably preventable.
The measures require hospitals to strengthen efforts to prevent the spread of bacteria and to reveal to the public their infection rates. The governor previously vetoed similar legislation.
New Hampshire hospitals are expected to start reporting hospital-acquired infections to the state as soon as possible after several news stories revealed they are not abiding by a two-year-old law requiring them to do so.
AGH has attacked the bug problem with such diligence that it has virtually wiped out one of the deadliest types -- central-line bloodstream infections. About 250,000 such infections occur in hospitals every year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospital officials say doctors and their patients need to be constantly vigilant to prevent infections, especially from those caused by new strains of drug resistant bacteria.
Two lawmakers want the commissioner of Health and Human Services to explain why the state isn't enforcing a law requiring the public reporting of hospital-acquired infection rates.
The new generation of resistant infections is almost impossible to treat.
Six more months worth of data cataloging hospital- associated infections in South Carolina was made public Monday.
The state Legislature passed a law in 2006 that called for making public the infection rates at state hospitals. Today, the release of that critical information still appears to be years away.
Although proper hand-washing would go a long way toward eliminating hospital-acquired infections, a statewide survey showed only 69 percent of health care workers did so before and after contact with patients and their environments at hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers.
Former House member Leo Pepino of Manchester vowed to eliminate hospital-acquired infections in New Hampshire after his wife battled three different cancers over the years, only to be further burdened by infections she picked up while hospitalized.
We Need Carrots and Sticks to Reduce Infection Rates.
Shortly after being released from the hospital after his birth, Takea Harris developed an infection in the area of her C-section incision. She died a few weeks after giving birth.
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality released a study that found insurers paid an additional $28,218 (52 percent more) and an additional $19,480 (48 percent more) for surgery patients who experienced acute respiratory failure or post-operative infections, respectively, compared with patients who did not experience either error.
It has been more than a week since Saint Agnes Medical Center resumed open-heart surgery after patient infection problems caused a shutdown of the program -- and business isn't what it used to be.
Architects are designing new facilities with stemming the spread of infection in mind.
And according to Consumers Union, hospital-related errors and infections kill nearly 200,000 Americans and injure another 2.6 million every year, adding billions to the cost of health care.
People who harbor methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) for more than 1 year still have a substantial risk of MRSA-related infection and death, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Research suggests that single-bed rooms can reduce infection rates by up to 45 per cent.
One doctor is fighting back using a common-sense plan of attack hopital infections.
Two years later, Alicia Cole says she's still recovering from her experience at Providence Saint Joseph. The hospital says it ranks 'above average' in the state for surgical infection prevention.
Three years after a law requiring hospitals to report their infection rates to the state passed, the numbers have been released -- sort of.
From now on the NY Department of Health aims at releasing similar data every year for each hospital separately.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment today released the first Health Facility Acquired Infections Bulletin.
View the report: Hospital-Acquired Infection Reporting System - 2007
Department Public Health Handwashing Campaign Kick-Off (VIDEO)
A survey released Tuesday by the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology found that 76 percent had increased efforts in the past year to control the spread of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
California hospitals would be required to step up prevention of drug-resistant infections and, for the first time, report any such cases to health authorities under a bill that passed the state Senate this week.
The number of hospital patients with C. diff increased by 200 percent from 2000 to 2005, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a government agency.
A Sacramento TV station highlights the dangers of hospital infections and surveys hospitals on whether they will make their infection rates public (see story sidebar for their responses).
"High Five" is designed to make sure hand hygiene is an integral part of every patient contact in health care facilities.
As Nancy Oliver spoke of her father's stay in an intensive-care unit, and of the infection that eventually killed him, her voice was calm, her delivery direct.
Kaiser Permanente answers questions about if and when their facilities will make their infection rates available to the public.
The hospital answers questions about why they don't currently make their infection rates available to the pulblic.
Actress and now patient safety after contracting Necrotizing Fasciitis (NF), also known as Man-Eating Flesh Disease.
A state panel will consider whether Ohio hospitals should have to publicly report certain infections contracted by patients.
A bill introduced in the California Senate by Sen. Elaine Alquist would require hospitals to publicly report their infection rates.
Rising rates of the bacterial infection Clostridium difficile, known as C. diff, are sparking worries about a virulent form of the bug that can cause severe diarrhea - and death.
Josh Nahum is one of 99,000 people who die each year because of infections acquired in the hospital.
Approximately 720 infections were likely prevented, saving an estimated 194 lives and nearly $4 million in unnecessary hospital costs.
Investigators in the Netherlands have trialed methods used by forensic scientists at crime scenes to highlight infection risks in their hospital.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office weighed in this week on the state of hospital infections in a report that urged the Department of Health and Human Services to play a bigger role in overseeing recommended practices for countering infections.
Ten years ago, Edward Lawton's life took an unpredictable twist: While hospitalized and recovering from spinal surgery, he acquired several severe infections. Resistant to treatment, they ravaged his body, damaging his bones. Now, he is confined to a wheelchair.
Consumers Union calls for bolder federal steps to protect patients from hospital infections. Statement of Lisa McGiffert Director, Consumers Union’s Stop Hospital Infections to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee On Healthcare -Acquired Infections
Sunshine not only fights infection—sunshine laws push data out of the shadows into the public arena, where it belongs.
Area hospitals mixed on infection report
Canadian study: an estimated 2,300 Canadians lost their lives in 2006 to antibiotic resistant Staph bacteria and added $200 million to $250 million to the country's health-care bill.
Neckties worn by doctors in hospitals have been implicated as carriers of infection causing bacteria
A bundle of infection control best practices has brought catheter-related bloodstream infections down to zero at a northern California hospital
The public is kept in the dark about MRSA and other hospital infections
HB 1546, would have required testing for MRSA in patients and doctors, isolation of infected patients and public reporting of MRSA hospital infection rates.
"This is preventable," said Colas, angry and anxious to get back home. "People don't have to get staph infections."
Pennsylvania hospital infection report has prompted poor performing hospital to improve patient care and reduce infections
Sisters watched their mother suffer from infection in hospital
MRSA — or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — has been a problem in hospital and health care settings for years.
But new state requirement fails to require reporting of hospital acquired MRSA
Panel OKs plan for inspections and report cards
Kentucky physician advocates for tracking of MRSA infections.
Nurse credited for new system that prevents bloodstream infections. A Sacramento-area hospital is emerging as a nationwide leader in the push to eliminate deadly infections picked up by unsuspecting hospital patients.
Nebraska researcher says hand hygiene is still important, but it's not a panacea
Hospitals are attacking potentially fatal infections by marrying a series of proven medical treatments in an approach called a "bundle."
The MRSA staph infection is a deadly threat. It's time for a broad-based response
Most don't even do basic monitoring of catheterized patients, study found
New survey finds hospitals not doing enough to prevent urinary tract infections.
Articles highlight the work of activist Carole Moss, whose son, Nile, died of a MRSA infection and nine hospitals that prevented 600 infections using a data-mining program to flag infections early to stop them from being passed to other patients.
Consumers Union Calls on Hospitals to Invest More Resources
Medicare will limit payments to hospitals for certain avoidable mistakes like catheter-associated urinary tract infections
A quick test for the drug-resistant bacterium MRSA has helped a London hospital to cut infection rates by almost 40 per cent in a single year.
Gov. Christine Gregoire wants medical laboratories around the state to report cases of invasive MRSA infections and instructed the health department to convene a panel of scientific experts to recommend the best, scientifically sound strategies to monitor and curb antibiotic-resistant organisms.
CDC Head Says MRSA Infections Can Be Avoided With Common Sense Hygiene
Missouri released surgical infection data for all hospitals for the first time in the state’s history.
To avoid infections, be proactive about doctors' hygiene
New Jersey becomes the 20th state to require public reporting of hospital infection rates
Texas hospitals don't have to make cases of deadly infection public
New law requires hospitals to start reporting infections in 2009
Hospitals Begin to Tout Ability to Control Infection; Mining the Available Data
Physicians, safety advocates and government officials are mobilizing to prevent the infections that have stricken an increasing number of hospital patients over the past three decades.
Infections seen in military hospitals in Iraq spread to U.S.
A new review of inpatient data from US hospitals shows that the number of infections caused by a common bacterium increased by over 7 percent each year from 1998 to 2003.
VA and MD hospitals vary on applying practices used to prevent surgical infections.
Commentary on public infection reporting bills currently before the MA legislature and Department of Public Health proposal to train hospitals and patients, and require public reporting of infection rates.
Analysis of 1,256 hospitals that participate in the Leapfrog Hospital Quality and Safety Survey, an annual rating system of a hospital’s quality and safety practices. The full report is to be issued on September 18.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine 20-hospital study showed that monitoring institutional water systems can help predict the risk of hospital-acquired Legionella pneumonia, better known as Legionnaires' disease.
The expansion comes as state health officials have started collecting data on infections from hospitals that it plans to publicize next year for the first time in a report card format.
CMS said that the new rules will not only improve the quality of care for Medicare benificiaries, but will save millions of taxpayer dollars every year.
Patients in hospitals should not end up worse off than when they were admitted because of an infection acquired during treatment.
Kentucky infection control specialist says hospitals across the US will have to eventually test patients for MRSA when they are admitted.
MRSA infections have increased exponentially in the past decade.
Under a new Pennsylvania law, hospitals will be required to test high risk patients for MRSA.
Hospitals in Delaware can no longer keep certain information about infections secret from the public
New law HB 47 sponsored by Rep. Hudson, will required hospitals to report their infections to the public.
Oregon is poised to become the latest state to require hospitals to publicly report their infection rates for certain procedures.
NH legislators appropriate $1 for hospital infection reporting.
Reducing the patient infection rate is a key goal of Gov. Ed Rendell’s ambitious health care reform agenda.
Consumers Union emphasizes patients should not be billed for the infections targeted by Medicare
New study reports lethal drug-resistant bacteria widespread
MN lawmakers approve law requiring public reporting of hospital infections.
US soldiers in Iraq do not carry the bacteria responsible for difficult-to-treat wound infections found in military hospitals treating soldiers wounded in Iraq, according to an article in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Columbia University School of Nursing researchers find nurse working conditions linked to increase in hospital-acquired infections.
Nurse working conditions linked to increase in patient infections.HULIQ.com.
Increasing numbers of hospitalizations have been linked to infections from a spore-forming pathogen known as C. diff.
Federal studies indicate that hospital infections are getting worse, and more deadly.
More states move to require hospital infection reporting.
Texas is getting close to requiring hospitals to disclose infection rates to the public.
Push for a reduction in errors, infections
MRSA is getting a lot of attention nationally because of its increasing prevalence and virulence.
Texas lawmakers have passed legislation to make patient infection rates public.
Washington Senate passes hospital infection reporting bill unanimously.
For the first time, Ontario hospitals will be required to publicly disclose their patient safety records, including infection rates.
Washington legislators are within reach of setting up a farsighted program to encourage control of hospital infections.
Hospitals in Wyoming are not required by the state or federal government to make their rates public.
Texas lawmakers are working to shine the spotlight on hospital infections.
The state Senate has passed a bill requiring disclosure of patient infection rates.
"The state Legislature is right to demand hospitals begin reporting their infection rates, an effort intended to spur corrective measures."
Washington state lawmakers are considering a bill to require all medical care facilities to report their infection rates.
A bill requiring public reporting of hospital infections is expected to pass the Washington House soon.
Infections lurking in the nation's hospitals have been a well-kept secret for years because information is not publicly reported. (scroll down for beginning of article)
Victoria and Armando Nahum created the organization SafeCare Campaign.org to help eradicate hosptial-acquried infections.
The CDC has provided funding for the University of Maryland to study the best way of combating antibiotic- resistant staph infections.
Katie Couric interviews Dr. Donald Berwick about the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s campaign to reduce medical errors, including hospital infections.
The public should know which hospitals have aggressive infection-control programs and which have high infection rates.
Drug reisistant infections
Wyoming hospital infection rates, nowhere to be found.
Hospital infections arise mainly from poor hygiene in hospital procedures, not from how sick patients were when they were admitted.
A new study reveals the roots of this problem, as well as its economic impact on the health care industry.
Groundbreaking report discloses the infection rates for each of the state’s 168 hospitals. This first-in-the nation report garnered extensive media coverage in Pennsylvania and across the country.
Pennsylvania has become the first state in the nation to divulge hospital infection data for individual hospitals.
Pennsylvania officials released a groundbreaking report about the costly, even life-threatening infections that patients acquire in hospitals.
Pennsylvania became the first state to publicly report the number of patients who contracted an infection while in its 168 hospitals.
In this two-part series, WCNC-TV looks at the problem of hospital infections and how consumers are left in the dark about their hospital’s record
A Texas advisory committee is urging the state to require hospitals to report data on patient infections to the public.
Evanston Northwestern Healthcare’s three hospitals are screening patients for MRSA to prevent the spread of these antibiotic resistant infections.
Europe is killing off hospital infections. Why isn’t the U.S. following suit?
New guidelines for U.S. health care facilities to control drug-resistant infections are strictly voluntary.
The ongoing epidemic of severe C. diff diarrheal disease — driven by a 20-fold more toxic mutant strain of the bacteria — is fast getting worse.
Patients in intensive care unit rooms previously occupied by someone with antibiotic-resistant bacteria may be at heightened risk of acquiring these dangerous infections.
Some steps patients can take to avoid infections in the hospital
A new law in New York will require hospitals to make their infection rates public.
A new Pennsylvania report shows that patients infected with MRSA were four times as likely to die and had longer hospital stays than patients who were not infected with the antibiotic-resistant infection.
The VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System has begun an effort to help veterans hospitals around the nation eliminate infections from MRSA.
A $21 million grant coming to South Carolina aims to improve patient care and prevent unnecessary hospital deaths.
The Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System is leading a nationwide effort to reduce infections caused by MRSA in hospitals.
If hospitals want to cut the rate of surgical site infections, they should toss out the razors.
Eighteen New Jersey hospitals have dramatically reduced rates of infection in intensive care patients as part of a two-year effort.
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Julie and Chris LeMoult were excited parents-to-be. Did a hospital infection turn the happiest day of their lives into a nightmare?
Efforts to prevent hospital-acquired infections at a Pittsburgh hospital have saved both lives and money, a physician told visiting U.S. Senate leaders.
Hospitals and other surgical facilities will be required to collect data on hospital-acquired infections and state regulators will have to make the information public under a bill signed today by Gov. Mark Sanford.
How do you choose a hospital? What if you could call up a Web site and compare one hospital against the others based on how many infections have been acquired there? That's not possible in Alaska. But it could be soon.
A small outbreak of infection at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Seattle may have contributed to the death of one patient and added to the complications of three seriously ill patients in the past several weeks.
Infection problem in a Florida hospital "higher than expected" on the state infection reporting website.
It's estimated that 250 people die every day from infections they picked up in the hospital.
Listen to the NPR Morning Edition story on how an increasing number of states are passing hospital infection report laws and read an interview with Dr. Rick Shannon of the Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh about how hospitals can prevent infections.
A House subcommittee has approved a Senate-passed bill requiring hospitals to publicly report data on patient infections
Alaska lawmakers have established a task force to develop recommendations for hospitals to disclose infection rates.
Infection control professionals convene summit to look at how preventing infections is good for hospitals’ bottom line.
Lawmakers are just beginning to take a hard look at the number of people who are getting infections in hospitals and other health-care centers.
WHO-TV’s investigative report on hospital infections in response to emails and calls from viewers who have suffered from them.
A proposed bill in Colorado would require 200 hospitals in the state to report and make public the rate of hospital-acquired infections.
A new report by HealthGrades concludes that as many as 950 preventable deaths occur each day from medical errors and other patient safety incidents, including hospital infections.
New Hampshire is among two dozen states now considering legislation to require hospital infection reporting.
Maryland hospitals must disclose their rate of patient infections under a bill passed unanimously by both the Senate and House.
House Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee looks at state laws that require hospitals to report infection rates. This story includes a link to an ABC Nightline news segment on hospital infections.
Hospitals claim that a new Pennsylvania report overstates the impact of infections. But the report’s estimates are probably too low instead of too high.
Numerous states are introducing legislation requiring hospitals to track and report infection rates.
As many as three people die each day in Connecticut from infections they got in the hospital, according to one estimate.
The New Hampshire House passed a bill that would make hospitals report statistics about infections that patients contract while being treated.
Hospital infection kills as many Americans annually as AIDS, breast cancer, and auto accidents combined.
The Colorado House Health and Human Services Committee held a hearing on January 23 which included testimony on HB 1045, the hospital infection reporting bill. The Committee voted 12-1 to move the bill to the Appropriations Committee.
Bacterial infection (Clostridium difficile) striking young, otherwise healthy Americans, appears to be spreading rapidly around the country and causing unusually severe, sometimes fatal illness
Pennsylvania has identified 21 hospitals in the state that appear to be under-reporting hospital-acquired infections, but the public is not informed which ones.
One in 20 people who enter the hospital will end up with infections they didn't have when they were admitted. Hospitals won't volunteer their infection rates, but they are facing increasing pressure to do so.
An influential group representing Pennsylvania hospitals has launched an unexpected attack against the state agency collecting data about hospital infections, expressing serious concerns about its latest report.
Florida quality report includes first hospital-specific information about infections.
Tampa WFLA-TV provides an extensive report on the new Florida Hospital Care Compare site that includes infection ratings for every hospital in the state.
Millions of patients contract an infectious disease while they are being treated in a hospital, but most hospitals do not release detailed data on the problem.
The segment includes an interview with Lisa McGiffert, Consumers Union, and Mark Volavka, the director of the Pennsylvania agency that released the first report on hospital-acquired infections.
How many more patients must die before Pennsylvania hospitals come clean about their infection rates?
Hospital infections aren't new. Yet proven methods that could cut the number of deaths in half aren't followed. Collecting that infection rate data is a good step to pressure hospitals to improve.
That Pennsylvania is the first state in the nation to publicly report hospital infections certainly is praiseworthy.
Nearly 12,000 Pennsylvanians contracted hospital infections in 2004, costing an additional $2 billion in care and resulting in 1,500 deaths, according to a state report.
Pennsylvania became the first state to issue a report detailing the toll hospital infections take in both lives and dollars.
Some leading hospitals in the UK are screening patients for MRSA before they are admitted in an effort to minimize infection risks.
Despite knowing for years that giving antibiotics prior to surgery reduces the risk of infection, this proven patient safety practice is followed only about half the time.
Infections that have been nearly eradicated in some other countries are raging through hospitals here in the United States. The major reason? Poor hygiene. In fact, hygiene is so inadequate in most American hospitals that one out of every 20 patients contracts an infection during a hospital stay.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4) will issue a statewide aggregate hospital-acquired infection report based on the first year of data collected from state hospitals. This is the first hospital-acquired infection report ever based on a mandatory reporting law. Also, since data received from most of the hospitals was inadequate, PHC4 will notify hospitals that they must do a better job or face random audits to ensure accuracy of reports.
A group of Vermont residents who have suffered from hospital infections told their stories at a recent hearing on legislation that would require public disclosure of infection rates.
Hospitals in western Pennsylvania are adopting a set of special procedures aimed at protecting patients from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, a difficult to treat and sometimes fatal infection.
Michigan lawmakers are considering a bill to require hospital infection reporting to help patients find out if their local hospital is doing a good job, and spur competition to keep infections down.
Lisa McGiffert of Consumers Union and Dr. Don Nielsen of the American Hospital Association discussion on publishing hospital infection rates.
Lawmakers in Maryland are considering legislation to require hospitals to disclose their infection rates.
Patient advocates ask why it's taking so long to reveal the data, as required by Florida law.
As many as 28,000 patients die each year in the U.S. because of catheter-related bloodstream infections, but doctors and nurses who implement simple and inexpensive interventions can cut the number of deaths to nearly zero, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.
Pennsylvania hospital performance reports include information about hospital-acquired infections.
Each year, more than 2 million people will develop a hospital-acquired infection. About 100,000 of them will die from one.
Legislation that California lawmakers have sent to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for his approval is aimed at making hospital-acquired infections far less likely.
Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, wants to give consumers more information about hospital-acquired infection rates and try to prevent the upward of 9,000 deaths a year attributed to these types of infections in California.
Hospitals in England are finding that the key to curbing antibiotic-resistant infections is collecting detailed data about which wards infections are common in and which particular patients are most affected.
Raymond Wagner Jr., an executive with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, draws on his son's personal experience to help Missouri legislators pass a bill requiring the reporting of hospital-acquired infection rates to the public. The bill is awaiting Gov. Bob Holden's signature. (CU's Lisa McGiffert quoted.)
Tampa's WFLA-TV reports on the secrecy behind infection rates in Florida hospitals. The three-part series was shot last October, but is particularly relevant now that the Florida Legislature has approved a bill requiring disclosure of infection rates in a more understandable form.
Ivanhoe Broadcast News, a national TV syndicator of health related news, has an excellent 3-part series on hospital infections. The series is being broadcast in approximately 100 stations throughout the month of May 2004. Part 3 of the series, “The Right to Know,” includes an interview with Earl Lui of Consumers Union. Click here to get the text of the entire series.
Antibiotics have been so overused that a new breed of “superbugs” is now resistant to almost all antibiotics. One of these is MRSA, a staph bacteria, that triggers infections so severe that they can turn deadly in days. It is also a prevalent hospital-acquired infection. 60 Minutes reports.
A growing number of hospitals are offering their patients private rooms. Among the benefits: less risk of a hospital-acquired infection.
Hospitals in Pennsylvania are on their way to being the first in the nation to issue public reports on a growing health threat: Hospital-acquired infections. (Quotes Ami Gadhia of Consumers Union's StopHospitalInfections.org campaign).
Board members for the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council unanimously approve a compromise that should allow for the collection of at least some data this year on infections acquired in hospitals.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council has until Feb. 18 to respond to protests by an influential hospital group that is trying to slow down the implementation of a statewide report card on hospital-acquired infections.
Walk into any restaurant in Louisville, and a prominent letter on the door tells you what to expect. But when you're walking in the doors of a hospital, there is no grade, no report, no indication of what you might find inside.
Officials at the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council said that they are moving forward with plans to collect infection data from the state's 200-plus hospitals despite a growing chorus of opposition from the hospital industry.
Voluntary reporting systems to track and improve hospital error and infection rates don't work well. Only public disclosure and reporting laws passed in some states have been successful. "Americans concerned about their health care should urge their senators to kill the misnamed Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act," states the editorial.
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) says hospital executives must play a larger role in controlling hospital-acquired infections by delegating more authority to front-line infection control managers and committing the necessary money and resources.
Pennsylvanians know more about the infection rate of a Chi-Chi's Mexican Restaurant in Beaver County than they do about the infection rates of their hospitals. Ay caramba!
At least 32,000 Americans die in the hospital each year as a result of 18 types of medical injuries, according to estimates from the Agency for Healthcare Researcg and Quality, or AHRQ, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association ... Lisa McGiffert, campaign director for StopHospitalInfections.org, a project of Consumers Union, called the article "a step in the right direction in educating the public about ... the costs associated with medical injuries and hospital infections."
This report contains Maine hospital specific rates on Central line associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rates for
intensive care unit (ICU) patients and neonatal (ICU) patients.) It also has process measures on CLABSI and venilator associated pneumonia "prevention bundles."
Des Moines hospital posts rates of hospital infection and patient falls, two common medical harm events.
Learn about Maryland's efforts to alter its payment system for preventable hospital acquired conditions and events that harm patients.
Learn about Minnesota's efforts to alter its payment system for preventable hospital acquired conditions and events that harm patients.
Learn about Kansas efforts to alter its payment system for preventable hospital acquired conditions and events that harm patients.
Learn about Missouri's efforts to alter its payment system for preventable hospital acquired conditions and events that harm patients.
A new report on state and federal nonpayment policies for preventable hospital acquired conditions and events that harm patients.
A new report on state and federal nonpayment policies for preventable hospital acquired conditions and events that harm patients.
Report from a collaboration of health care providers in Iowa claims decreases in infection rates but fails to provide details by hospital. Reporting is voluntary so not all hospitals have provided information.
The New Mexico MRSA Collaborative reports that, after its year-long efforts to reduce healthcare-acquired MRSA infections, participating hospitals reduced their rate of MRSA bloodstream infections by 48 percent over 12 months. In essence, about 17 MRSA cases were avoided as a result of the efforts made by collaborative participants. Read the report here.
A report shows that PA hospitals had a significant decrease mortality rates associated with hospital readmissions compared to the previous year. Readmissions often are due to complications or infections – in this case, the cause of 22,094 of PA readmissions, which accounted for almost $1.1 billion in charges and 157,000 hospital days. The report found that readmissions for complication or infection comprise 38.2% of all readmissions in PA.
Study finds nearly 13% of hospital patients leave with MRSA and pass the superbug on to nearly 20% of the people in their households.
Testimony by Jason George, legislative and political organizer for the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 49, before the MN House Health Policy Committee on hospital-acquired infections.
Has the U.S. made any progress on patient safety since the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released To Err is Human in 1999?
Advice for preventing infection at an ambulatory facility.
Printable pocket guide prepared by Nile's Project.
Informational flier prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Twenty-six states have enacted some form of reporting law, requiring hospitals, and sometimes other health care facilities, to submit infection data to the state or the Centers for Disease Control, and release this information to the public on the Internet.
A study of Medicare hospital records from 2003 and 2004 found that 1 in 5 patients was readmitted within 30 days, and half of non-surgical patients were rehospitalized without having seen an outpatient doctor in follow-up. In 2004 Medicare paid $17.4 billion to hospital for these readmissions. Readmissions are often avoidable and connected with problems in the hospital (like an infection) or with aftercare.
Testimony on MRSA bill to the Senate Finance Committee considered by the 2009 Maryland General Assembly.
According to the CDC, the overall annual direct medical costs of hospital acquired infections to U.S. hospitals ranges from $28.4 to $33.8 billion.
Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General report on issues ranging from public and confidential reporting of adverse events, variations in estimates of adverse events, underreporting, measurements and nonpayment policyies for adverse events.
On February 8, 2006, President Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (Pub. L. 109-171) (DRA) which contained language creating a system for quality adjustment of Medicare payments for inpatient hospital services. The law required the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to identify at least two hospital-acquired conditions which could have reasonably been avoided through the application of evidence based guidelines and would be subject to the adjustment in payment.
Following last year’s GAO report on the federal response to hospital-acquired infections, the US Department of Health and Human Services has produced a “National Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections.” The federal agency is seeking public comments on the Plan, due 2/6/09.
The GAO determined the scope and collection of available data limited the agencies ability to determine a national estimate of hospital associated infecdtions related to medical devices. However, experts report medical staff practices as a significant factor.
Trends in Health Care: Zeroing in on infection prevention and control. The report also links to tables with data from a joint survey of hospital employees conducted in 2008 about most effective methods hospitals use to measure and enforce hand hygiene compliance.
This report is a summary of hospital associated infection data collected by NHSN from 2006-2007. Data was collected on device and procedure associated infections reported by participating hospitals. No individual hospitals are identified.
New national study finds prevalence of C. difficile infections in hospitals 6.5 to 20 times higher than previous studies. Most are identified as health care acquired, indicating hospitals and nursing homes need to do more to stop the spread of these infections. Consumers Union's policy brief (PDF)explains the problem.
A Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections in Acute Care Hospitals puts existing guidelines and clinical experience into a more practical format that is more useful to health care workers and hospital staff and can help hospitals design comprehensive infection control programs. The compendium covers surgical site infections, central-line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, MRSA, and Clostridium difficile.
An Overview of State Reporting Programs and Individual Hospital Initiatives to Reduce Certain Infections.
The Agency for Health care Research and Quality report finds disturbing trends in c.difficile infections, which can lead to diarrhea, blood poisoning and death.
Hearing of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Chairman Henry A. Waxman.
Health-Care-Associated Infections in Hospitals: Leadership Needed from HHS to Prioritize Prevention Practices and Improve Data on These Infections.
University of Michigan survey reveals that hospitals don’t have a consistent strategy for dealing with urinary catheters or ensuring their timely removal
Background information on causes, symptoms, treatment, and other resources
About three of every 100 operations performed in the United States are complicated by surgical site infections (Gaynes et al. 2001).
Includes the list of “hospital-acquired conditions” for which no additional payments will be made starting Oct. 1, 2009.
Study reveals overwhelming majority of MRSA infections are acquired in hospitals and health care settings.
Rules go into effect October 1, 2008.
The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project reports on the rise in antibiotic-resistant MRSA infection in hospitals.
The antibiotic-resistant bacteria is found in all wards throughout most hospitals. The study is the first nationwide analysis on the prevalence of MRSA in U.S. healthcare facilities.
Report shows that hospital-acquired infections erode the profit margin of US hospitals by $5000 per infected patient.
Report highlights the financial impact of hospital infections in Oregon
A new Ohio report shows that cases of C-Difficile infections exceed 1,000 every month.
Institute criticizes statement by infection control groups opposing MRSA screening for all hospital patients.
A new report by the CDC underscores the need for better surveillance and infection-control strategies in dialysis centers.
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) report highlights for hospital CEO's the financial impact of hospital-acquired infections.
See last paragraph
Clostridium difficile is an increasingly important cause of infectious diseases, especially in health care settings. Find reported rates for Ohio acute care hospitals and nursing homes for 2006.
Clinical evidence shows that hospitals can virtually eliminate such infections by following a special ventilator patient care protocol
New guidelines for U.S. health care facilities to control drug-resistant infections are strictly voluntary and fail to recommend proven prevention practices.
Beginning on October 5, PBS presents a four-part series on pioneering individuals struggling to fix our broken health care system. Episode Two, entitled "First Do No Harm," focuses on hospital infections and will air on October 12 on most PBS stations. Check local listings to confirm.
Research has shown that skin abrasions caused by shaving increases the risk of postoperative infections.
Listen to a webcast of the House Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee's March 29, 2006 hearing on hospital infections by clicking on the link above.
Group says 60,500 lives have been saved in the first nine months of its one-year campaign to prevent unnecessary deaths at hospitals, including fatalities from infections.
The rate of ventilator associated pneumonia in 14 hospitals participating in IHI's 100,000 Lives campaign drops to zero.
Pennsylvania report identifies key findings about hospital-acquired infections in heart surgery patients.
An in-depth look at how Pennsylvania is tackling hospital-acquired infections and getting significant results: saving lives, reducing illness, and lowering health care costs.
The use of active surveillance cultures to screen patients for MRSA, along with appropriate precautions for infected patients is a promising new strategy for preventing and controlling hospital infectons.
Many state and national initiatives are underway to mandate or induce health care organizations to publicly disclose information regarding institutional and physician performance.
CDC: Of the estimated 1.6 million nursing home residents, 250,000 have infections, and 27,000 of them have antibiotic resistant infections.
The Ohio House health Committee has approved legislation by Representative Jim Raussen that requires hospitals to report data on a whole range of health care quality measures, including hospital-acquired infections.
Most of us will have to go into the hospital some day. Here are specific steps you can follow to protect yourself from deadly hospital infections.
New study shows that antiseptic-coated catheters and better safety measures in hospitals can significantly reduce the number of infection-related hospital deaths.
MRSA Watch site gives extensive information about studies, guidelines and recent stories about MRSA in the UK.
An astounding 76% of the infections were paid for by Medicare and Medicaid. Also, the report reminds us that the uninsured carry the heaviest financial burden, since they are unable to negotiate discounted prices with their hospitals, as do Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance plans.
A report by The Patients Association into hospital acquired infections reveals haphazard approach towards screening patients for MRSA.
CDC pages on healthcare-acquired infections and community-acquired infections
The problem of antibiotic resistance in treating hospital-acquired infections from the National of Allergy and Infectious Diseases discusses
Reader Feedback: Hand Hygiene is No. 1 Weapon Against Infections
After careful consideration the CMS along with the JCAHO have agreed to temporarily suspend public reporting of hospital performance on appropriate antibiotic selection for surgical prophylaxis. CMS and JCAHO will continue to collect data on antibiotic selection for surgical prophylaxis during the temporary suspension but will not publicly report performance on this measure on Hospital Compare.
Despite the fact that hand hygiene is the most simple and effective means of reducing the transmission of germs, many clinicians do not consistently follow hand hygiene recommendations, such as those issued by the CDC.
Minnesota releases adverse events report released. The report identifies 27 different “medical errors” (such as operating on the wrong part of the body or wrong patient) and “adverse events” (such as patient falls, suicide, and abduction), it does not include hospital-acquired infections. A new bill filed in the MN legislature (HF 87) will require inclusion of hospital infections in the future.
MRSA is a staph infection that is resistant to treatment by common antibiotics. Recently, “community acquired” MRSA (“CA-MRSA”) has been on the increase. The CDC has information available about MRSA.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presents helpful tips on preventing hospital-acquired infections.
The NQF, a coalition of medical groups, employers, consumer groups and others, this year released practice standards to reduce hospital infection and other quality of care problems.
Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations this year asked hospitals to improve their reporting of hospital infections that result in serious harm or death to the patient (sentinel events).
Researchers estimate that blood stream infections, a subset of all hospital-acquired infecation, may be the eighth leading cause of death in the U.S. Study sites other research showing substantial reduction in infection with better hand washing compliance.
The CDC estimates that each year nearly 2 million patients in the U.S. get an infection in hospitals, and about 90,000 of these patients die as a result of their infection. The CDC presents new hand-hygiene guidelines to reduce the spread of infections.
The CDC estimates that hospital-acquired infections cost us all nearly $5 billion a year.
A coalition of consumer, labor and employer groups supported the final passage of a groundbreaking disclosure law that makes infection rates public for Illinois consumers.
The Empowered Patient Coalition is a consumer and advocate-led effort to inform, engage and empower the public to assume a greater role in their own medical treatment and in becoming a driving force for meaningful health care reform.
The coalition was formed by advocates Helen Haskell and Julia Hallisy who share the same great loss of a child, similar patient safety goals and a clear vision of a health care system that is safe, effective, transparent and patient-centered.
Our goal is to partner with individuals, other advocates and consumer organizations to give the public a stronger voice in all health decisions. We strive to enable a new level of collaboration by facilitating the sharing of ideas and resources among all coalition members and participants and encourage the formation of powerful partnerships within the group that will lead to policy changes and quality health care for all.
http://www.empoweredpatientcoalition.org/home
Contact: info@EmpoweredPatientCoalition.org
Inspired by the faith-filled life of Nile Calvin Moss, nile's project is a non-profit organization devoted to educating the public, exposing health care's big secret and eliminating unnecessary deaths through public awareness!
Contact: Carole Moss - carolemoss@msn.com
The Alliance for Safety Awareness for Patients (ASAP) is a non-profit organization formed by Necrotizing Fasciitis Survivor Alicia Cole and her parents Ron & Betty Cole. Its mission is to educate and protect patients through awareness of hospital acquired infections such as Necrotizing Fasciitis, MRSA, VRE, Sepsis and others.
Mission Statement:
The Maryland Coalition for Patients’ Rights is a grassroots alliance of parents, children, siblings, friends, patients and concerned citizens dedicated to promoting, protecting and preserving the civil rights of all patients. Through education, public awareness and political action, CPR is fighting to preserve the right to safe, honest and professional healthcare for all Marylanders and, in cases of injury suffered as a result of negligence and mal-practice, the right to legal redress and fair and just compensation.
http://www.coalitionforpatientsrights.org/
The Consumer Health Quality Council (a coalition of Health Care for All) empowers those impacted by health care quality issues to have a voice in our health care system, to engage fellow consumers to be active partners in their health care, and to advocate for high quality, safe, and accessible health care for all Massachusetts residents.
http://hcfa.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Page.viewPage&pageId=546&grandparentID=531&parentID=544
Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME) is a South Carolina-based group that works with medical error victims, healthcare professionals, and legislators to promote its mission of providing support to victims of medical harm; educating policymakers and the public about patient safety issues; and advocating for improvements in healthcare policy. Areas in which MAME has been active include medical education reform, hospital infection reporting, in-hospital patient support systems, and disclosure of medical error.
Contact: Helen Haskell mamemoms@gmail.com
http://www.mamemomsonline.org/
The Empowered Patient
595 Buckingham Way # 305
San Francisco, CA 94132
Contact: Dr. Julia Hallisy
Hallisy@TheEmpoweredPatient.com
(415) 681-1011
Our goal is to help empowered patients claim their right to safe, effective health care. Patients are beginning to grasp the importance of taking a proactive role in their health care and are coming to the realization that they are a powerful, yet untapped safety resource.
Our mission is to raise public awareness about patient safety issues including adverse events, medication errors, hospital-acquired infections and communication challenges. Help us stand and bear witness to the fact that we can and must do more to keep patients safe.
http://www.TheEmpoweredPatient.com/NH Patient Voices
6 Fieldstone Drive
Bow, NH 03304
contact: Lori Nerbonne
nhpatientvoices@comcast.net
603-491-4563
(website under construction)
Mission: To advocate for urgent improvements in patient safety and in gaining access to hospital quality data that will allow NH health care consumers to make informed decisions when selecting hospitals and treatment providers. We also raise awareness for and educate healthcare consumers about patient safety, infection & error prevention, and patients' rights.
CT Center for Patient Safety works in our communities, within our healthcare systems, and with elected officials to improve the quality of healthcare and to protect the rights of injured patients through education, accountability and advocacy. We believe that quality healthcare is a right.
We shouldn't pay hospitals to treat us for preventable infections we got from the hospital stay itself. And hospitals should report their infection rates so people can compare and pick the best, safest hospital for surgery, childbirth or illness.
These kind of common sense changes have already been tested in many states and they work! Now its time--past time really--to extend these safety incentives to every hospital in every community.
Urge your House and Senate lawmakers member to pass these common sense changes.
More than 290,000 surgical site infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year. Patients who acquire infections from surgery spend, on average, an additional 6.5 days in the hospital, are five times more likely to be readmitted after discharge, and twice as likely to die.
Surgery patients are at risk for infection because surgical incisions create a pathway for germs to enter the body. Maintaining a sterile environment in the operating room is therefore critical to protect patients from being contaminated with bacteria, which can lead to infection.
How well is your hospital, state and the nation as a whole are performing on three key practices that help prevent infections during surgery? Find out here »
In November 2006, following a medical procedure, I came down with a 104 fever with an extreme headache. Informing the doctor of my symptoms, I was told I had probably caught a ‘flu bug’ and to wait it out until my post-op appointment two weeks later.
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John McCleary, my father, was admitted to the hospital on September 26, 2008 with a minor fracture of his ankle. He was in that 25 bed hospital for 12 days for rehabilitation and discharged in good condition on October 5.
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In February 2008, I had pain in my right flank area that lasted in the same spot all night. Thinking it could be a kidney stone, I went to the ER the next morning and they checked my urine and did a CT scan. Read More »
Rep. Adam Goode of Bangor, Maine and 9 other representatives and senators sponsored my bill, now known as Maine LD 1038. A much abbreviated form of my proposal was signed into law by Governor John Baldacci in June 2009. We are now mandated to screen those patients who are at high risk for MRSA when admitted to the hospital. My goal is to help save lives. I only wish I had done it before I lost my father.
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Dr. Hallisy is committed to and passionate about the subjects of patient safety, health care reform and medical error reduction. Her personal and professional goals include working diligently to help give patients a voice in healthcare solutions.
Read More »
On Halloween night 2004, Ann Marie Robinson of California spent the night in the local hospital. "I came out the next day with Clostridium Difficile, something worse than what sent me there in the first place," she says. Frustrated with the hospital's response to her problems, she wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper last year seeking other people in the same situation. Within 3 days, 46 people had called, and so she created "Infection Connection"... Read More »
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