Hospitals Need To Be Held Accountable For Deadly Infections

THE DOCTOR IS IN
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LAS VEGAS- Hello America, and how is the world treating you?

Recently the Las Vegas Sun did a wonderful expose on hospital care here in Las Vegas. Needless to say, the results were dismal. Health care in Las Vegas and Nevada as a whole is very poor. The Las Vegas Sun found 2,010 instances in 2008 and 2009 wherein patients were infected in one of the 13 acute care area hospitals by the lethal bacterium MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and another called C Diff. (Clostridium difficile). Believe it or not 239 of the infected patients "died."

State Senator Shirley Breeden championed a bill last year to require stricter reporting of such infections but the doctors, health care workers, hospitals and their lobbyists opposed the bill and their monies from their large political war chests won out and the bill was watered down to the point where all the hospitals have to do is "voluntarily" report the infections and the hospitals made it clear that the public cannot see the results.

These sociocomial diseases (another word for hospital-acquired infections) kill patients and the hospitals do not want the public to know which hospitals have the worst infection rate. The hospitals do not want the public to read any data rating the infection rates that may pertain to any given hospital. The hospitals in Nevada have fought facility-specific reporting of infections since 2002 long and hard.

Following the Las Vegas Suns excellent reporting on hospital infections UMC and St. Rose hospitals said they would give permission to the state of Nevada to publish the information. Other hospitals in Las Vegas refused to give permission and it appears they do not want transparency of any kind. For those hospitals that do not want to make infection rates public information would make any patient wonder: "What are these hospitals hiding?" "What are they covering up?"

I would submit that public reporting of quality-of-care information and hospital infections by individual hospitals should be a mandate nationwide. It's no secret that the health care workers and the hospitals at any specific hospital actually know how many patients are infected within the walls of their facility but they want to keep this information from the public.

I would suggest that doctors and hospitals that don't want consumers/patients to know about the quality-of care borders on a criminal act. These doctors, health care workers and hospitals should be held legally responsible for their infection injuries and/or deaths as well as their failure to alert the consumer/patient of hospital infection rates.

Personally, speaking for myself, if I'm the one going into the hospital I am putting all of my trust and faith and my life in their hands. How can a patient make an intelligent and informed decision as to where they want their health care provided if they do not have the proper information? The patient/consumer cannot tell where they might be at risk for injury and/or death and the patient(s) are prevented from determining where outbreaks are occurring.

I would say it is time for the Federal and state governments to pass legislation that requires every individual hospital to make quality-of-care and infection rates public and they should put some teeth in the legislation that fines the hospitals that fail to be transparent. Giving these hospitals a slap on the wrist is an act of futility. All the hospital does is pay the small fine and look at it as part of doing business. These sentinel events of infections should not be occurring so the penalties should be severe. What price is a father, mother, grandparent, even a child worth?

I say that if the doctors, nurses, and all other health care workers wash their hands between patients and as often as they should (as they are taught in medical school), clean their equipment properly and properly clean rooms between patients and stop exposing uninfected patients to infected ones the rate of deadly infections would subside dramatically. However, it appears these professionals fail to do just that over and over again. It's a shame!

Because of the lax attention to personal and institutional hygiene and quality-of-care by these health care professionals the hospitals fight transparency. They do not want patients/consumers to see the results of hospital and staff errors and mistakes. That's wrong. Where are the lawmakers when we need them? And, that's my opinion. Make your own decisions. You decide.

Bradley W. Kuhns, Ph.D., O.M.D.
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Dr. Kuhns can be reached by e-mail at:
bradleykuhns@gmail.com