Learn more about the necessary steps, and the work by RID: Reduce Hospital Deaths
My last column on hospital infections seems to have hit a nerve with you, my readers. Stories and photos, each appalling, have arrived through e-mail and postal mail.
Many of you wrote to wish my mother-in-law well. You may remember she contracted a hospital acquired infection after surgery here in Central New York. She is on the mend, I’m pleased to say, and getting stronger. She’s one of the lucky ones.
Too many of you wrote to tell me about loved ones who died. Each of them had acquired a staph infection, including MRSA, the superbug that resists any of the drugs developed to destroy it. In most cases, the cause of death listed was whatever had put that patient into the hospital to begin with. But each letter said that the patient was healing before the hospital acquired infection set in.
A husband sent me horrible photos of a flesh eating infection around his wife’s surgery incision. She has now had nine surgeries, and they still aren’t sure she will pull through. She’s been living in a burn center because it’s the only place that is sterile enough to help her heal.
So why do I share all this with you? Because it’s clear that hospitals are not being diligent enough to combat these infections. And if they won’t clean up their acts – we patients must!
You may remember Dr. Betsy McCaughey’s name. She is a former Lieutenant Governor of New York. Dr. McCaughey left politics to found a national, not-for-profit organization called RID: Reduce Infection Deaths. I contacted her to get some advice on what patients can do to protect themselves.
Dr. McCaughey was very candid when she told me patients can do very little while they are actually in the hospital. Hospital Acquired Infections spread in so many ways, it’s almost impossible to be fully protected unless everyone around the patient wears a paper gown and gloves.
She told me that RID’s work shows that few hospitals take the necessary hygiene steps, already proven successful in Denmark and Finland, unless they are legislated to do so. In 2004, New York enacted a “Hospital Infection Report Card Law” which went into effect in 2008. The new law requires public disclosure of infection rates, which patients will be able to use to determine which hospitals they want to choose for services.
In the meantime, RID has published a list of 15 steps patients can take to protect themselves on their website, www.hospitalinfection.org . Hospitalized patients and their loved ones will be smart to use them.
Consider hiring a patient advocate to help you with strategies to avoid a hospital acquired infection.
If you need help making sure a loved one is getting good care and avoiding hospital infections, ReAssured Advocacy can help. Call us today at 303-756-8436.
Reprinted with permission from Trisha Torrey, Every Patient’s Advocate: www.EveryPatientsAdvocate.com
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