Health News
- New Rule Will Improve Reporting Of Antibiotic-resistant Infections In Health-care Facilities, Which Are Getting Worse In Kentucky
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. ? Kentucky will have a new weapon, in the form of data, to fight infections acquired in hospitals and other health-care facilities, with legislative approval of a regulation that changes...
- Activist Seeking Stronger Rules On Reporting Health-care Infections Says Industry Lobbyists Misled Legislative Committee To Kill Bill
"Health-care industry witnesses appeared to have presented incorrect information" to the House Health and Welfare Committee in speaking March 6 against House Bill 460, which would require all health-care facilities to report infections associated with...
- Infections, Other Safety Issues Plague Hospitals, Maybe More So When Nursing Is Cut; Here's A Good Series On It
The Centers for Disease Control has reported that nearly 1 million patient-safety incidents, including infections that patients acquired in hospitals, occurred among Medicare patients over the years 2006, 2007, 2008. In all, the incidents -- which represented...
- Data On Hospital-acquired Infections, Other Conditions Online
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted information about hospital-acquired conditions on its website, and The Courier-Journal not only has a story about it today, it has an easily searchable database of Kentucky hospitals....
- Legislator Wants To Make Hospitals, Health Care Facilities Report Infections Acquired By Patients Under Their Care
In the face of strong opposition from Kentucky hospitals, a Democratic legislator has filed a bill that would require all health-care facilities to report the incidence of infections acquired by patients while under their care, the Lexington Herald-Leader's...
Health News
Kentucky needs system to track hospital infections, doctor says
Kentucky is in need of a single, accurate system that tracks hospital-acquired infections in order to improve health care and receive state and federal funding, an op-ed piece in The Courier-Journal contends. (Hospitals call these "healthcare-associated infections," keeping the HAI acronym but spreading the blame. --Editor)
"The need for accurate data cannot be overstated," writes Dr. Kevin Kavanagh of Somerset. "Data on infections is vital to address epidemics, to direct research, to develop antibiotics and for the state to receive grants and devise prevention protocols."
But Kentucky's reporting system is "duplicative and broken," Kavanagh contends, with no standardized system. "Facilities can make the same report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the [state] health department and to the hospital's Patient Safety Organization," he said. Though HAIs should be reported in Kentucky, only four outbreaks were conveyed by hospitals last year. "As of December, the definition of an 'outbreak' was not agreed upon, which makes data collection and grant funding difficult," Kavanagh writes.
To combat the problem, 22 states are using The National Healthcare Safety Network run for free by the CDC to collect their data, which Kavanagh advises. He also encourages transparency and commended Norton Healthcare for posting information about treatment of catheter- and ventilator-associated infections. Because of this transparency, the provider received an award from the National Quality Forum. But "the problem of hospital-acquired infections and conditions is too big, too important and has gone on far too long to depend solely upon hospitals to correct the problem," Kavanagh argues. (Read more)
- New Rule Will Improve Reporting Of Antibiotic-resistant Infections In Health-care Facilities, Which Are Getting Worse In Kentucky
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News FRANKFORT, Ky. ? Kentucky will have a new weapon, in the form of data, to fight infections acquired in hospitals and other health-care facilities, with legislative approval of a regulation that changes...
- Activist Seeking Stronger Rules On Reporting Health-care Infections Says Industry Lobbyists Misled Legislative Committee To Kill Bill
"Health-care industry witnesses appeared to have presented incorrect information" to the House Health and Welfare Committee in speaking March 6 against House Bill 460, which would require all health-care facilities to report infections associated with...
- Infections, Other Safety Issues Plague Hospitals, Maybe More So When Nursing Is Cut; Here's A Good Series On It
The Centers for Disease Control has reported that nearly 1 million patient-safety incidents, including infections that patients acquired in hospitals, occurred among Medicare patients over the years 2006, 2007, 2008. In all, the incidents -- which represented...
- Data On Hospital-acquired Infections, Other Conditions Online
The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted information about hospital-acquired conditions on its website, and The Courier-Journal not only has a story about it today, it has an easily searchable database of Kentucky hospitals....
- Legislator Wants To Make Hospitals, Health Care Facilities Report Infections Acquired By Patients Under Their Care
In the face of strong opposition from Kentucky hospitals, a Democratic legislator has filed a bill that would require all health-care facilities to report the incidence of infections acquired by patients while under their care, the Lexington Herald-Leader's...