Posted on Sun, Jul. 09, 2006

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Hospitals work on reducing infections

New law will allow consumers to compare health facilities’ rates

By RODDIE A. BURRIS

rburris@thestate.com

The first public reporting of hospitals’ infection rates, mandated by a new state law, won’t be made available for another 19 months.

But state hospitals are not frittering away that time.

Many health facilities have already kick-started practices to lower infection rates, in conjunction with a national campaign to reduce incidents.

An estimated 2,000 people in South Carolina die each year from hospital-acquired infections.

“They are giving us some grace period,” said Donna Isgett, vice president of clinical effectiveness at McLeod Health Systems in Florence. “We have a reasonable time frame to make some pretty significant outcomes.”

Nationwide, health experts say such infections are a growing problem. The results are preventable deaths and injuries, higher costs for patients and insurers and longer hospital stays.

Lawmakers this year passed the Hospital Infection Disclosure Act. It requires hospitals and other health care facilities to collect data on surgical-site infections, ventilator-assisted pneumonia, and central-line bloodstream infection rates.

The first data must be reported to the Department of Health and Environmental Control by February 2008. The agency will then make the information available to the public in simple language. Reports will be due each six months.

Hospitals could eventually be issued alphabetical or numerical ratings based on infection rates, similar to the way restaurants are graded for cleanliness. Proponents say that will help people make better-informed decisions in choosing a hospital.

Already, though, McLeod, a national leader in infection control, eliminated ventilator-associated pneumonia at its facilities in three years by following Institute for Healthcare Improvement guidelines.

The institute is behind the 100,000 Lives Campaign, a nationwide initiative launched in 2004 to avoid 100,000 preventable deaths in hospitals by June 2006. It reported last month that more than 122,000 lives were saved. About 95 percent of the beds in South Carolina’s 64 general hospitals were included in the campaign.

Palmetto Health Baptist in Columbia and Oconee Medical Center, a small facility in Seneca, report dramatic reductions in ventilator-associated pneumonia cases as part of the campaign.

Palmetto Baptist, for example, reported it started intervention techniques for pneumonia in September 2004, and a month later had no ventilator-assisted pneumonia cases in its intensive care units. The hospital’s previous pneumonia rates were not reported by the institute.

Suggested improvements include such common-sense practices as hand-washing by hospital workers and cleaning equipment between patients.

SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

Once thought of as unpreventable in intensive care units, ventilator-associated pneumonia is the leading killer among hospital-acquired infections.

But it is not the only problem.

Sixteen-year-old Jimmy Toolen of Sumter has undergone six surgeries to correct a staph infection his parents say he picked up last year at Columbia’s Providence Hospital.

Toolen’s father is also being examined to determine if he picked up the infection from his son.

Toolen was a ninth-grader with aspirations of playing high school football. He initially went to the hospital to have a torn knee ligament repaired after a bicycle accident. His football dreams now dashed, a distraught Lisa Toolen, Jimmy’s mother, said they worry their son may lose his leg.

“We are broke,” she said. “This has drained us. It has put our family through living hell.”

Searching for answers, Lisa Toolen said she tried to find out from the hospital what procedure was performed immediately before her son’s but was refused the information.

Jeanna S. Moffett, director of public information and marketing for Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals, declined comment on the case citing privacy laws. She said the hospital has numerous patient-safety procedures in place to help identify, control and prevent infection. Providence also participates in the 100,000 Lives Campaign.

“We believe this campaign has given us a lot of practical strategies to improve patient care,” Moffett said in a written response.

A HEALTH ISSUE

Hospitals don’t have to wait to implement infection controls, said Helen Haskell of Mothers Against Medical Error, a watchdog group.

“If they want to have a good rating they should start now,” she said.

DHEC has consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to determine how to carry out its role in collecting data and public disclosure. DHEC is forming an advisory panel, which will include a consumer representative, to advise it.

Sen. Ralph Anderson, D-Greenville, who sponsored the legislation signed in May, said hospitals will respond to the law as a means of protecting both their business and their patients.

“This is an important health issue for all South Carolinians,” Anderson said. “Public reporting is just one important step in the complicated course of actions by all involved in caring for ill and injured South Carolinians.”

Reach Burris at (803) 771-8398.