Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI)

Our assumption is that a hospital is a place where a patient arrives with a serious health concern, receives expert treatment and leaves in an improved state of health. Increasingly, however, many patients face an increased risk of acquiring an infection unrelated to the reason for admission while in the hospital.

In April of this year, Health and Human Service’s quality report to Congress found “very little progress” on eliminating Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) and called for “urgent attention” to the issue. (http://www.hhs.gov/ophs/initiatives/hai/introduction.html#_ftn2)

A 2005 report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) noted that HAI alone afflicts nearly 2 million patients and kills approximately 90,000 people annually. This is more than diabetes or influenza/pneumonia. In addition, because the average hospital stay for HAI patients is extended between 7.4 and 9.4 days, approximately $40,000 is added to the cost of these patients, and the overall cost is estimated to be between $4.5 billion and $7.4 billion per year.  This is a serious issue worthy of the attention of the Friedell Committee, and we’d like to solicit your assistance. Like most issues of quality health care, we believe that communities should know the infection rates of their home town hospitals, and what progress those hospitals are making in addressing this concern.

While it’s easy to understand why hospitals might be reluctant to disclose this information, making such data available can only be helpful in the long-run resulting in improved patient care and community collaboration. The CDC has stated that, “The tracking and reporting of health care associated infections is an important step toward healthcare transparency,” a major goal of health system reform.

In the US, several states have implemented public reporting laws dealing with HAI, but
Kentucky is not one of these. Some Kentucky hospitals already understand the importance of the issue. Norton Healthcare, for example, publishes their data on their Web site at http://www.nortonhealthcare.com/body.cfm?id=181. Most hospitals are dealing with it internally, although not making their data available to the public.  The Kentucky Hospital Association has indicated a strong interest in this topic and plans to begin rigorous training in July for hospitals who volunteer for the project. This will represent progress in solving the problem. It’s easy to understand why hospitals are reluctant to share data that might put them in a bad light, however, we strongly believe this is not just a concern of health care professionals, but calls for community awareness, involvement and support to address the problem.

It is estimated that one-third or more of the HAI deaths are preventable. It is community members who acquire the infections and sometimes die from them, and who directly or indirectly pay for the additional care needed.

If you live in a community with a hospital, we are asking you to request that the hospital complete a Survey indicating how they track HAI internally, and what steps they are taking to reduce infections. In this first step, we’re not asking for their data, but we’d like to know if they are considering making it available to the public.  If you are interested in receiving a copy of the Survey and taking it to your local hospital, please contact us.