Patient Safety

Hospital-Acquired Infections

Hospital-acquired infections are one of the top ten leading causes of death in the U.S. and significantly increase the cost of health care.

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control & Epidemiology reports that 1.2 million hospital patients are infected with dangerous, drug-resistant staph infections each year.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in 20 patients – about two million a year – contract an infection while in the hospital.
Hospital-acquired infections kill over 90,000 people annually – more than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS.
Hospital-acquired infections increase the length of hospital stays up to 30 days.
The cost to the U.S. health system of treating hospitalized patients with staph infections is astronomical – between $3.2 billion to $4.2 billion a year.

What can be done? The Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHCI) has proven that simple, practical steps coupled with new technology can drastically reduce infection rates in hospitals. The IHCI’s “100,000 Lives Campaign” outlines protocols, such as hand washing, to help reduce occurrences of infection-causing bacteria in health care facilities. Since 2004, the campaign has prevented some 123,000 unnecessary deaths.

More transparency in the health care market, including tracking and reporting of infection rates, is also necessary. In 2006, South Carolina passed S. 1318, which requires hospitals to publicly report their infection rates. Seventeen other states have passed or are considering similar measures.

Specifically, mandatory public reporting of common hospital-acquired infections will:

Allow health care consumers to minimize their exposure to harmful bacteria. Access to quality of care information enables consumers to “comparison shop” for facilities that have the fewest number of reported infections.
Create a new competitive element in the health care marketplace. Hospitals experiencing higher infection rates will have an incentive to closely examine current procedures and enact guidelines to minimize the risk of infections.
Better define the problem here in Georgia, and will create a source of data that can be used in identifying and employing effective strategies.

Are doctors leaving Georgia?

As many as 195,000 people are killed by medical errors each year, according to health care consulting firm HealthGrades Inc. Even so, providing safer care for patients in doctors' offices, hospitals and nursing homes is not a priority for many of our state leaders or the health care industry.

Instead, powerful insurance and medical lobbyists want to limit compensation for patients injured by negligent or abusive care. This so-called "tort reform" puts profits above patient safety, even while Georgians continue to suffer from careless medical errors. They say they want to lower malpractice premiums because doctors are fleeing the state - a claim that simply is not true.

In 2003, Georgia boasted 38 percent more physicians than it had in 1994, according to the State Medical Board. During the same period, Georgia's population grew only 23 percent, according to the U.S. Census.

Guaranteeing safer health care for Georgia patients must be at the heart of any health care reform.

How dangerous is our health care?

In 2005, several statewide advocacy groups promoted what we believe is a sound approach that would go a long way to lower malpractice premiums for doctors AND promote patient safety: House Bill 779, also known as The Consumer Right to Participate Act.

A product of a year of research and collaboration between elder and consumer advocacy groups and citizen volunteers, this legislation draws from patient safety initiatives that are working now to make health care safer for families in other states.

AARP Georgia, the Georgia Council on Aging, consumer watchdog group Georgia Watch and The Women's Policy Group have educated Georgia citizens on the need to increase the State Medical Board's oversight of health care providers, and improve the quality of health care in Georgia by weeding out the relatively small number of repeatedly negligent doctors.

The Consumer Right to Participate Act would do just that, and the need for these new provisions is apparent:

In Georgia, just 3.5 percent of practicing physicians were responsible for nearly 40 percent of the state's malpractice payouts between 1991 and 2003.
During that same period, 18 doctors were responsible for between four and eight malpractice payouts each, yet none were disciplined by the State Medical Board.
The Journal of the American Medical Association in 2003 ranked Georgia's quality of care 47th in the nation, placing the Peach State's health care among the worst in the country.

Even The Federation of State Medical Boards advocates for participation of laypeople on licensing and disciplining boards in its 1998 "Elements of a Modern State Medical Board" report. The board recognizes that consumers should play a role in policing providers to break the "white wall of silence." A provision to include public members outside of the health care industry is a key part of the Consumer Right to Participate Act.

Other pro-consumer provisions include the following:

Three-strikes-your-out provision that revokes the license of any Georgia doctor with three or more court judgments of malpractice against them.
Requires hospitals and nursing homes to report all deaths and adverse incidents to the Department of Community Health, which would post findings on its Web site.
Taylor's Law - Modeled after Massachusetts legislation passed with the support of the state's medical association, this provision would allow victims of medical errors and their families to make statements detailing how malpractice has affected their lives in medical board's discipline hearings. AARP Georgia advocates for increased patient protections, chiefly because older Georgians are two to four times as likely to suffer injury or death by medical negligence than people younger than retirement age.

In 2007, Rep. Mike Keown introduced HB 492, aimed at getting a stronger consumer voice on the Georgia’s Composite Medical Board. The bill would add a second consumer member to the Medical Board. Currently there are 13 members of the board and 12 of them are doctors. Many other states have multiple consumer members on the boards authorized with licensing and disciplining physicians.

HB 492 passed out of the Health and Human Services Committee easily but did not make it to the House floor for a vote. The bill will again be eligible next year for action by the legislature.

According to the Third Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Report, 1.24 million Medicare patients hospitalized from 2002 to 2004 were victims of serious medical errors, leading to over 250,000 estimated preventable deaths. In Georgia hospitals, every year there are an estimated 1,276-2,842 deaths, costing Georgia families and communities $493 million-$841 million.

In July, the Institute of Medicine found that more than 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, nursing homes and doctors’ offices. On average, a hospitalized patient is subject to at least one medication error per day.

Also, the Journal of the American Medical Association has ranked the quality of health care provided in Georgia 47th in the nation. Guaranteeing safer care for Georgia patients must be a core principle of any health care reform because it saves money and lives.

Bring balance and sunshine to Georgia’s State Board of Medical Examiners (CSBME). In Georgia, 3.5 percent of physicians are responsible for 40 percent of the state’s malpractice. Yet, the CSBME is not weeding out these repeat offenders. Georgia doctors are forced to subsidize a system that supports and protects a small number of repeatedly careless doctors.

Based on the rate of serious disciplinary actions taken in 2006, the CSBME dropped 10 places from its 15th place ranking in 2003. By drastically decreasing the number of disciplinary actions against doctors – even as the medical profession grows – the CSBME is failing Georgia patients.

Georgia’s Governor could bring more balance to the CSBME by adding at least three members with no affiliation to the medical community.

Require public reporting of “quality of care” measures in hospitals and nursing home. Hospital-acquired infections increase the length of hospital stays up to 30 extra days, adding to the cost of health care and causing substantial, unnecessary pain and illness. In 2006, South Carolina passed S. 1318, which requires hospitals to publicly report their infection rates.

Adopt industry-proven safety standards. Over 90 percent of South Carolina’s hospitals participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s “100,000 Lives Campaign,” which has prevented some 123,000 unnecessary deaths since 2004 by promoting simple changes, such as hand washing and disinfecting patients’ skin. Less than one-third of Georgia’s 183 hospitals fully committed to the campaign.