Hospital contracted infections, with
an accompanying death toll one official described as “astounding,”
continue to rise, according to a study of health care facilities in
Pennsylvania, which is one of only six states required by law to report
and make public such information.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council Wednesday
reported that more than 11,600 patients contracted infections while
patients in Commonwealth hospitals last year, and that nearly 1,800 of
them died as a result. The council said the actual incidence of
infection actually is believed to be higher because of inconsistencies
in quarterly reports on four types of infection on which hospitals have
been required to track and report since 2004.
“The deaths associated with those patients and the costs associated
with those patients are astounding,” said Marc P. Volavka, the
council’s executive director. “These numbers, even on their own, stand
as a clarion cry to take action.”
The only other states required by law to track and report hospital
connected infections are Florida, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska and
Virginia.
Volavka said his council’s report highlights an apparent discrepancy
between the 11,668 infections reported by hospitals and the more than
115,600 possible hospital-borne infections the council identified by
analyzing patient diagnoses included in the hospitals’ 2004 billing
data. The report also notes a seeming disparity in the 2004 figures.
More than half the reported hospital-acquired infections were reported
by only 29 hospitals – 17 percent – while 16 hospitals reported none at
all.
A breakdown of types of infections suffered by hospital patients showed
6,139 affected the urinary tract, 1,932 involved the bloodstream, 1,335
caused pneumonia, 1,317 were acquired during surgery and 945 consisted
of a combination of any of the first four. The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention defines a hospital-acquired infection as a
condition not present or incubating in a person at time of admission to
the hospital.