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February 2008
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Activists help reduce hospital infections
It's been four years since Sandi Grello of Allentown, Pa., had hip surgery. Her hip joint healed just fine, but the antibiotic-resistant
staph infection she got in the hospital still affects her life.
A few days after surgery, she developed a raging fever and was rushed back to the hospital. She had become septic from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an increasingly common cause of hospital-acquired infection. It took a week in the hospital and eight months of recuperation before she was strong enough to return to work.
Grello now takes daily antibiotics and meets with an infectious-disease specialist every three months to keep the infection at bay.
PUSHING FOR PROTECTION
Grello is one of almost 2,000 consumers who sent their stories to Consumers Union's Stop Hospital Infections campaign, which is pushing for a federal law requiring hospitals to report the rate at which patients develop infections during treatment at their facilities.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 2 million patients develop a variety of infections while being treated in hospitals each year and that almost 100,000 of them die. Infections add billions of dollars to health-care bills every year because patients who acquire them need extra care and often require more days in the hospital.
Most infections could be prevented if hospitals consistently followed proven infection-control practices, such as hand washing. But studies have documented that fewer than 50 percent of hospitals follow hand-hygiene standards.
MRSA infections can result from such laxity. Researchers at the CDC estimate that almost 95,000 Americans developed it in 2005; some 19,000 of them died. The study found that 85 percent of serious MRSA infections are acquired in health-care settings. (For more information on MRSA.)
Antibiotic-resistant infections can be avoided. In Finland and the Netherlands, MRSA rates were reduced significantly through strict hand hygiene, screening incoming patients for the bacteria, and taking precautions such as isolating those found to be carrying MRSA. A 2006 survey of infection-control professionals found that only 28 percent of U.S. hospitals screen for MRSA.
Most consumers have been in the dark about their local hospital's success in preventing infections. That's changing. Consumers Union has helped pass laws in 20 states requiring hospitals to disclose how many of their patients develop infections.
Legislation to create a national infection-reporting law was recently introduced in Congress by lead sponsors Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Consumers Union supports those efforts to improve patient care nationally and reduce needless sickness and death.
ADVOCATE Sandi Grello joined CU's efforts after developing an infection following surgery.
A few days after surgery, she developed a raging fever and was rushed back to the hospital. She had become septic from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an increasingly common cause of hospital-acquired infection. It took a week in the hospital and eight months of recuperation before she was strong enough to return to work.
Grello now takes daily antibiotics and meets with an infectious-disease specialist every three months to keep the infection at bay.
PUSHING FOR PROTECTION
Grello is one of almost 2,000 consumers who sent their stories to Consumers Union's Stop Hospital Infections campaign, which is pushing for a federal law requiring hospitals to report the rate at which patients develop infections during treatment at their facilities.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 2 million patients develop a variety of infections while being treated in hospitals each year and that almost 100,000 of them die. Infections add billions of dollars to health-care bills every year because patients who acquire them need extra care and often require more days in the hospital.
Most infections could be prevented if hospitals consistently followed proven infection-control practices, such as hand washing. But studies have documented that fewer than 50 percent of hospitals follow hand-hygiene standards.
MRSA infections can result from such laxity. Researchers at the CDC estimate that almost 95,000 Americans developed it in 2005; some 19,000 of them died. The study found that 85 percent of serious MRSA infections are acquired in health-care settings. (For more information on MRSA.)
Antibiotic-resistant infections can be avoided. In Finland and the Netherlands, MRSA rates were reduced significantly through strict hand hygiene, screening incoming patients for the bacteria, and taking precautions such as isolating those found to be carrying MRSA. A 2006 survey of infection-control professionals found that only 28 percent of U.S. hospitals screen for MRSA.
Most consumers have been in the dark about their local hospital's success in preventing infections. That's changing. Consumers Union has helped pass laws in 20 states requiring hospitals to disclose how many of their patients develop infections.
Legislation to create a national infection-reporting law was recently introduced in Congress by lead sponsors Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. Consumers Union supports those efforts to improve patient care nationally and reduce needless sickness and death.
