A Boston Globe article looks at the decrease in infection rates at a number of Boston-area hospitals and cites a number of possible reasons for the decline.
Among those reasons mentioned are the upcoming public reports on hospital-acquired infections that will be issued through the Department of Public Health early next year. An annual public report on infections became law in Massachusetts as a result of the advocacy of Health Care For All and the Consumer Health Quality Council.
Other reasons for the decrease include the implementation of steps to reduce bloodstream infections in the ICU, similar to a program in Michigan hospitals that reduced such infections by close to two-thirds. One element of that program is the use of a checklist to prevent the infections. HCFA and the Consumer Council are advocating for legislation that would require hospitals to use checklists such as this one, that have been proven to be effective, to prevent infections and other complications. New England Baptist, one of the hospitals mentioned in the article, screens all incoming patients for MRSA and has seen its infection rates drop as a result of this and other protocols it has put in place.
HCFA and the Consumer Council are also advocating for legislation to require hospitals to screen high-risk patients for MRSA upon admission in order to prevent its spread to other patients. Despite the long-held belief, as is mentioned in the article, that infections are inevitable in hospitals settings, it is clear that the increased focus on decreasing their occurrence by consumer advocacy groups, medical providers, government regulators and others has had an impact.
-Deborah W. Wachenheim
