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Have you ever been admitted to the hospital for surgery or illness? Have you ever caught an infection unrelated to your surgery or illness? If so, you have been the victim of a nosocomial infection also known as hospital-acquired infections.
C. difficile, MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus), are well known, but there are many others.
Do you know that you have more chances to die from a nosocomial infection than from a car accident?
Every year in Quebec, 90 000 people are afflicted by these infections and, of that number, 4000 die immediately.
A minimum of 50% of these infections could be avoided by better prevention and control measures such as strict hand hygiene.
Nosocomial infections are also very costly to the health system. On average they cost 180 millions dollars yearly.
By joining ADVIN you contribute to the promotion of safe care and quality hospitals.
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Maryland: disclosure of infection rate in hospitals compulsory. |
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Written by Christine Besson
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Tuesday, 11 April 2006 |
 The Senate and House of Maryland passed unanimously a bill obliging hospitals to disclose their rate of patient infections.
Beginning July 1, the state’s 47 acute-care hospitals will have to report data on hospital-acquired infections. A system of reporting has been established since 2002 by the Maryland Health Care Commission.
Bacteria, carried on the skin or inside the nostrils, become potentially deadly when entering wounds, surgery incisions or needle penetrations. Many of these bacteria have become-antibiotic resistant which add to their danger.
The CDC –Center for Diseases Control in Atlanta- estimates that the rate of victims and deaths are under evaluated because reporting data from the nation’s hospitals and nursing care facilities have not been widely available.
Last week, health officials in Pennsylvania, the first state to require disclosure of hospital infections, in 2004, reported that the problem is larger and costlier than originally estimated.
"The latest data provided by hospitals underscores that the problem of hospital-acquired infections is larger and more costly than originally estimated," said Mr. Volavka, Executive Director of PHC4. "The increase can be attributed to the fact that Pennsylvania hospitals are getting better at the reporting process and an expansion in surgical site infection data collection requirements."
The hospital admissions in which the 13,711 hospital-acquired infections occurred during the first nine months of 2005 were associated with an additional 1,456 deaths, 227,000 extra hospital days and $2.3 billion in additional hospital charges.
Pennsylvania Health report
“Some hospitals in Pennsylvania have now gone months with no infections,” said Dr.William Minogue, director of the Maryland Patient Safety Center ‘‘We know that it is doable.”
The Senate Finance Committee voted against screening measures that would have required 69 Maryland hospitals and 240 nursing homes to screen all incoming patients for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The hospital industry lobbied against this second bill, arguing it would be too expensive.
But preventing through screening would save even more lives and money said said Sen. Lisa A. Gladden (Baltimore) and she plans to reintroduce the measure next year.
As a reminder, Pennsylvania counts 11 millions inhabitants, Québec 7 millions. But how many hospital-acquired infections in Québec? Where are the figures? |
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