FierceHealthcareFierceHealthITFierceHealthFinanceFierceEMRHospital ImpactFierceMobileHealthcare   FiercePharma

Mass. mulls hospital-acquired infection reporting

Tools
Tags
hospital acquired infections
healthcare costs
healthcare workers
that would require
patient health

In a bid to reduce hospital-acquired infections, Senator Richard T. Moore (D) of Massachusetts has filed legislation that would require all state hospitals to publicly report hospital-acquired infection rates as early as next year. According to the Boston Globe, the law calls for "mandatory education for healthcare workers and penalties for employees and facilities that don't comply with infection prevention measures, which health officials are developing." Regulators hope to lower infection rates to zero by training hospital staff to focus on preventing infections. Several other states, including Pennsylvania and Missouri, also have infection reporting requirements.

Because there are currently no reporting requirements, no exact numbers are available on the toll these infections take both on patient health and healthcare costs. However, the CDC estimates treating hospital-acquired infections costs roughly $25,000 to treat, and 12 to 25 percent of patients who contract an infection die from it.

For more on the new bill:
- read this report

Related Articles:
PA first to report hospital-specific infection rates. Report
FL site gives inside view of hospitals. Report
Drug company sees success with experimental MSRA treatment. Report

Bookmark and Share
Get Your FREE FierceHealthcare Email Newsletter:
Be the first to comment

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

More information about formatting options

To combat spam, please enter the code in the image.