More than 30,000 people, or about 19 patients in 1,000, contracted infections in 2006 while undergoing treatment at hospitals in Pennsylvania, according to a state report. The report, from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, found that patients who got infections remained in the hospital an average of 19 days, compared with fewer than five days for those who did not do so. Patients with infections wracked up hospital charges averaging nearly $176,000, compared with less than $34,000 for other patients.
Anthem Blue Cross, the largest insurer in California, has announced that it will stop footing the bill for some of the most egregious medical errors, such as surgery performed on the wrong organ or patient. The announcement is following the lead of Medicare, which will stop reimbursing hospitals for eight avoidable mistakes beginning Oct. 1, 2008. Medicare expects to save about $20 million a year from the new policy.
New York doctors who are beginning tests of an experimental vaccine for open-heart surgery patients say they hope the shot will keep MRSA at bay. The aim of the vaccine is to prevent bloodstream and surgical wound infections, and Merck & Co. is testing it in 84 countries. The clinical trial is expected to run three to six months.
The Food & Drug Administration is taking too long to announce and implement a program to track medical devices, according to the Advanced Patient Safety Coalition. The Coalition, consisting of of hospitals, patient advocacy groups, and clinicians, called unique medical device identification “a crucial factor” in improving patient safety and reducing the frequency of medical errors. An identification system that assigns a medical device unique number will mean quicker and more reliable recalls and better tracking of outcomes in patients who have implanted devices, representatives of the group added.
In a national survey of patient satisfaction conducted by Medicare, 73% of patients nationally said their nurses always communicated well. Just four hospitals in Northeast Ohio topped that figure, however. Some say the nurses could be so concentrated on providing care that the communication could be suffering, and that doctors may not be doing their part in communicating to the nurses.
In this entry from her blog in The New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope reports on a British study that shows many patients aren’t comfortable asking their physicians questions that allow them to take an active role in their own health and safety. The findings suggest patients are worried about insulting their doctors by asking safety-oriented questions, according to the study's authors.