Discarding Data a Dastardly Deed, Consumer Advocates Assert

By now you may have heard that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has purged infection data from hospital records dating from 2005 to 2008 because it believed this data was too expensive to maintain and, according to a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "is too sensitive for the public to examine for more than a year." The newspaper quotes a number of consumer watchdogs who say this action now makes it challenging to review these hospitals' infection prevention efforts and to compare them with the national average.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "Missouri six years ago was among the first states to require hospitals to disclose their annual infection rates for certain surgeries and intensive-care units. At the time, that Missouri Nosocomial Infection Control Act of 2004 was lauded for its public-protecting potential." The newspaper quotes Rep. Rob Schaaf, a St. Joseph Republican and physician who backed this legislation, as saying, "It's pretty sad to me that the (health) department can't give you a trend to show that a hospital is getting better or worse. It shows that the department doesn't really care."

To read more from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, CLICK HERE.

This deed comes at a time when the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) is demanding data under new hospital-acquired infection reporting regulations being adopted by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). According to the Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports, the new reporting requirements apply to hospitals that participate in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) "pay-for-reporting" program. Virtually all hospitals in the country participate because they earn a higher Medicare payment for doing so. Beginning in October 2012, Medicare payments to hospitals will be tied to how well they protect patients from these infections and perform on other patient safety standards.

Consumers Union says that public reporting of infection rates will ultimately help to save countless lives and dollars by putting pressure on hospitals to work harder to improve prevention efforts.

"Patients shouldn’t have to worry about getting sicker with an infection they catch in the hospital but every year nearly two million Americans do," says Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project (www.SafePatientProject.org). "Making infection rates public is a powerful motivator for hospitals to improve care and keep patients safe. This is an enormous victory for patient safety advocates who have worked tirelessly to hold hospitals accountable for failing to eliminate infections."

The HHS regulations are being issued under the landmark healthcare reform law adopted earlier this year and were developed as part of the HHS' five-year action plan to reduce hospital-acquired infections, which are associated with nearly 100,000 deaths annually. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) estimates that the direct costs associated with hospital infections are as high as $45 billion each year. Starting in January 2011, hospitals will be required to report to the CDC the rates that patients develop central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) in the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units. The CDC estimates that patients develop more than 250,000 central line-associated bloodstream infections each year while in the hospital.

According to Consumers Union, infection rate information for each hospital will be posted later that year on the federal Hospital Compare web site. During the first year of public reporting, Medicare payments will be tied to hospitals for reporting infection rates, but following that first year, the payments will be tied to meeting a certain standard for infection rates. Hospitals will be required to begin reporting surgical site infection rates to the CDC in January 2012 and that information will be posted on Hospital Compare every quarter. According to the CDC, more than 290,000 surgical site infections occur in U.S. hospitals each year, affecting patients in two out of every 100 surgeries.

Consumers Union has worked with patient safety advocates throughout the country since 2004 to push states to adopt hospital infection reporting laws and helped to pass such requirements in 27 states. More information about hospital infections and state reporting laws can be found on Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project web site at: http://cu.convio.net/hospital_infection_disclosure_laws