Tens of thousands of hospital patients die each year from causes that could be prevented as many U.S. hospitals turn a blind eye to safety, quality and public accountability, according to a report by the National Academy of Sciences.
"This kind of harm is a pervasive yet silent epidemic, obscured by a culture of secrecy and fostered by a lack of oversight and meaningful reform," the report concluded.
Hospital acquired infections linked to unsanitary conditions or practices are a leading cause of unnecessary patient deaths, claiming at least 40,000 lives that should have been saved each year, according to the academy's Institute of Medicine.
The report, which set out to find key areas for improvement in hospital care, was compiled by dozens of doctors and health care professionals based in more than a dozen states, including Illinois.
Overall, the report outlines 20 areas for reform, including improved treatment for diabetics, increased screening for cancer and better immunization programs for children and adults. It also emphasizes the need for more public information on the performance of hospitals.
The report's conclusions reinforce Tribune investigative findings published last year...See Date of this report in page title above...in a three-part series, "Unhealthy Hospitals," which documented widespread, life threatening sanitation problems in most U.S. hospitals. The Tribune reported that 103,000 patients died from hospital acquired infections and that an estimated 75,000 deaths were preventable in 2000.
The institute report comes at a time of heightened public demand for improved access to efficient and safe care and as the ranks of Americans without health-care insurance increase.
Illinois legislators and some consumer advocates are looking for quicker remedies. Bipartisan legislation is expected to be introduced Wednesday in Springfield that would create a statewide report card mandating that hospitals report rates of infections, mortality and levels of nurse staffing.
The institute is calling for a "culture of accountability" in which results are shared with the public, particularly because many of the 20 suggested reforms encompass the nation's leading causes of death, such as cancer, heart attacks and infections.
"Up to 50 percent of all major hospital complications, that's about 2 million Americans a year, get these hospital-acquired infections," said Dr. George Isham, who chaired the institute committee that drafted Tuesday's report. "That results in as much as $4.5 billion in extra costs a year. This is a big, important issue."
Isham, medical director for Minnesota-based HealthPartners, said low-quality care does not stem from a lack of effective treatments but rather from inadequate systems to carry them out.To maintain momentum, Isham said, the institute is suggesting that the government track and monitor health-care reforms.
But some patient advocates,note that promises of reform have taken too long to implement.*As it appears that nothing , but rhetoric has prevailed, since the two previous groundbreaking studies dating to 1999
The Illinois report card effort is spearheaded by the Service Employees International Union, the nation's largest health care union, which has launched a Chicago-based Hospital Accountability Project....State Sens. Barack Obama (D-Chicago) and Christine Radogno (R-La Grange) and Rep. Mary Flowers (D-Chicago) are backing the proposed bill.
Much to the dismay of the hospital industry, unions are increasingly lobbying for health-care reforms, most notably the California Nurses Association, which last year pushed into law the nation's first minimum nurse staffing levels.Tom Balanoff, president of the Service Employees International Union's state council, said* the Illinois legislation would be an important tool for the public, which "has a right to know information that could affect their very ability to survive a hospital stay."
Currently, hospitals embrace a checkerboard of private and for-profit grading systems adopted by dozens of organizations. Grades typically are skewed because results are dependent on incomplete data derived from federal Medicare and Medicaid reports, American Hospital Association officials confirm.
