News tagged with 'Infections'

Hospitals could save thousands of lives and billions of dollars if they acted like the top five hospitals in the U.S., according to HealthGrades.

A new study finds that about 48,000 Americans die from infections acquired in the hospital, and that raises the cost of health care by billions of dollars. These are not infections that individuals would have caught had they not been hospitalized, says the study from Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C. think tank.

Increasingly hospitals are turning to risk calculators, based on thousands of procedures nationally, to inform consumers the risk of their procedure and complications.

A report by the Hearst Newspapers finds that about 200,000 people die from errors by doctors and infections in hospitals, which are largely preventable. Here are some of their stories.

Dead By Mistake reports 200,000 avoidable medical mistakes lead to death in the U.S. every year, and during debates over health care reform, no one is monitoring how to make hospitals safer.

More proof that MRSA, methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus – is everywhere.  A Congressional staffer has contracted the superbug bacterial infection, possibly at a House staff gym.  It is currently being disinfected, and InjuryBoard has hosted much discussion on what type of disinfectant works best.   

The dramatic story of a Brazilian model is bringing home the susceptibility even the young have to bacterial infections.  In this case, Mariana Bridi da Costa, 20, had an undiagnosed urinary tract infection which became a blood infection. Then her body began shutting down.

The Seattle Times finds that no one is tracking the explosion in MRSA rates and there is no consistent policy for screening for the staph infection in hospitals.  Testing and isolation of infected patients and carriers is the only way of containing the infection as well as washing your hands.

A nasty and often deadly stomach bug is more common in U.S. hospitals than previously believed. C. difficile, an intestinal bacteria, that can cause intestinal infections and diarrhea is resistant to most antibiotics.

Older donated blood resulted in blood poisoning or pneumonia among hospital patients, according to a new study -  reinforcing the idea that donated blood should be discarded before 6 weeks, which is the current outside limit.

All of the leading health and hospital organizations are on the same page with this new set of recommendations aimed at reducing 1.7 million incidents of six major hospital infections a year. Washing your hands is still the leading and least expensive measure. Not everyone is doing it.

A new government report found more children have been getting seriously ill from the flu because they also had a staph infection, most commonly (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) MRSA.

MRSA has taken the life of an otherwise healthy 18-year old football player in Orlando. Warning letters are going out to parents not to panic. MRSA frequently responds to other stronger antibiotics, just not methicillin.

C. diff is presenting a series of challenges to hospitals and nursing homes already coping with methicillin-resistant staph. The bacteria loves to thrive after a good dose of antibiotics wipe out the good bacteria in the gut. Avoid hospital settings to avoid contacting the bug.

A Swiss study looked at whether pre-testing hospital patients for MRSA and then isolating them would cut down on infection. Surprisingly, that didn't have any impact on the number of MRSA infections which kill about 19,000 annually in the U.S.