Pennsylvania's New Hospital Infection Report

The most recent report on hospital-acquired infections is another welcome example of how Pennsylvania has led the nation on many health care related issues. While many other state legislatures have succumbed to the constant and well-funded stream of PR from hospital associations and their related "Patient Safety" initiatives on how wonderful and progressive they are, Pennsylvania has chosen to take action.

Mark Volavka, who has worked tirelessly, valiantly and amidst much opposition, is applauded by patient advocates and health care consumers across the country.

Others, such as Dr. Carlene Muto of UPMC who has championed the cause of controlling the most egregious of hospital-spread bugs, MRSA and VRE, are also looked up to with admiration and great respect by all of us.

While Dr. Muto and Mark Volavka may have had their differences over the years, the combination of these two true public health servants has been a winning combination for health care in Pennsylvania and beyond. And no one should forget that the idea of public reporting of hospital infections began with and continues to be fueled by Consumers Union and the manager of the Stop Hospital Infections campaign, Lisa McGiffirt. To those of us who have been the victims and the families of victims of these preventable diseases, Lisa McGiffirt has been an oasis of comfort and a source of strength, and much more, with which to fight to fix this decades old problem and the institutionalized negligence which has enabled it.

Other states, such as Illinois, have also been among the true leaders in this effort. Pat Merryweather of the Illinois Hospital Association, who fought against powerful interests, is a champion in getting that states law makers to enact groundbreaking MRSA screening and reporting legislation. She continues her noble and life saving struggle.

And to all of the unnamed individual advocates and consumer groups across the country, you all have been and continue to be the driving force for much needed and long overdue change.

There is a lot more that needs to be done in this area. It's a shame that all of our country's health care leadership has not lived up to the best ideals that these people and organizations have. But what a wonderful testimonial are the efforts and accomplishments that these wonderful people have made to American democracy. Can anyone begin to estimate the suffering that their efforts have prevented or the numbers of lives that have and will continue to be saved?

Michael Bennett

My Mother

In 1988 my mother had open heart surgery in a hospital in PA. Because they left the urinary catheter in too long my mother contracted a urininary tract infection. Even though we brought this to a staff nurse's attention a urine test was never performed. The outcome was that my mother died, was resusitated and ended up in the hospital for more that 3 months. She had to go to physical therapy to learn to walk again and ended up with bed sores so large you could fit your fist in them. The care for these went on for another 6 months.

We took the case to an attorney and guess what the hospital had no record of us going to the staff nurse requesting the doctor be contacted and tests be done.

Bottom line, law makers should have gotten their heads out of the sand 20 years ago.

the first beams of sunshine

Congratulations to Pennsylvania for shining light on the performance of hospitals when it comes to hospital infections! It is exactly this kind of information that citizens need to know in order to press hospitals to strive to make quality as important to their board of directors as profit. New Jersey will soon be following suit in tracking certain hospital infections by facility. But these are just the first beams of sunshine in the Garden State. It is tragic that only two states in the nation will shine light on the number of serious preventable medical errors (or NEVER EVENTS as they are often called) that occur in our hospitals each year. Publicly funded institutions should no longer be allowed to hide these deadly but entirely preventable errors--let the public know how many errors have occured in your hospital, and then tell us how you will prevent them in the future!

Reporting Hospital infections should be the Law

Government has rules for the medical communities, the banking industries, but neglect to oversee the insurance industries and hospitals on their obligations to their consumers. Hospitals are at the top of the list because sick people are not BEING PROTECTED. Infection rates have soared in recent years, causing death and near death to people who were not very ill to begin with, but were hospitalized for tests or procedures. It is a disgrace to our country that our government has no interest in such a serious issue. Consumers organizations need to address this and publish a list of all hospitals to identify and stamp out this terrible situation.

Hospital Acquired Infections

Hospital-acquired contagions account for about one half of all hospital complications. Therefore, we are dealing with a problem on a massive scale.

There are two basic pieces to learning the cause and control of this dilemma: (1) It is the nature of the beast - infected people go to hospitals because that is where they need to be. (2) Human behavior plays the largest role in the spread of infectious organisms.

There are identifiable standards of care to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in hospitals and to prevent infections of various parts of the body arising from sloppy technique. This is an area of provable negligence that often goes unnoticed.