04 | 27 | 2009 Posted By Regan Zambri & Long

Increase in Hospital Acquired Infections

Posted by Victor E. Long, Esq.

More than 10,000 veterans who were exposed to the endoscopic equipment--which wasn't sterilized properly--are all being tested. The problem would be unpleasant, enough no matter how the three got infected, but what arguably makes it worse is that each were infected at different hospitals, one at a VA facility in Murfreesboro, TN, one at a facility in Augusta, GA, and a third in Miami. Not only that, there have been six positive hepatitis B tests and 19 positive hepatitis C results at the three facilities.

An orthopaedist  who worked in two different hospitals during 25 years in practice before retiring was confronted with three different spikes in acute infections of Total Joint Reconstruction over a 25 year career. In all three episodes, the hospital's response always was that it was a surgeon problem related to my technique (you must be doing something different that is causing your patients' infections, as the hospital has not changed any of its techniques or personnel).

Based on his experience, there are common problems that need to be addressed.

 

  • Every doctor and hospital needs to enter the 21st century and keep accurate, real-time data on their top five Medicare admissions that includes at a minimum: patient demographics (age, sex, diagnosis, co-morbidities etc.), treatment, average length of stay, discharge disposition, charges and complications/readmissions.
  • Doctors and hospitals would have to start working together to take care of patients according to a national standard, as currently there are no standards, and every doctor and hospital has their own unwritten or unstated standards.
  • There can be no delay in payments as the doctor and hospital would have to work together to insure the data is correct, and no meddlesome third party could delay it as it is done electronically. Only errors would be kicked out. Similarly, outcomes that reached a national standard would be paid at a higher rate, and those that fell below a certain standard would be reduced.