Hospital Acquired Infections Affect One in 25 Patients According to the CDC
Hospital Acquired Infections (HAI) or health care associated infections affect patients in hospital or other health-care facilities and were not present or incubating at the time of admission. HAIs represent the most frequent, adverse events in health-care delivery worldwide. Approximately 30 percent of patients in ICUs will be affected by at least one health-care associated infection according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s HAI prevalence study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports that on any given day, about one in 25 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection. In 2011 there were about 722,000 HAIs in acute care hospitals in the United States. About 75,000 patients with HAIs died during their hospitalizations. The most prevalent HAI was pneumonia followed by gastrointestinal illness, urinary tract infections, blood infections and surgical site infections from surgery.
Hospital acquired infections linked to surgical equipment in two Pennsylvania hospitals
The Pennsylvania health department is blaming the possible infection of thousands of patients at two PA hospitals during the past four years on a surgical device used in heart surgery. According to a story on Pennlive.com, approximately 2,300 patients from Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and about 1,300 patients from WellSpan York Hospital might have been exposed to the rare nontuberculous mycobacteria, or NTM. These patients would have been exposed to the infection during their surgeries at the two hospitals that took place between Nov. 5, 2011 and Nov. 5, 2015. The health department has traced the infections to heater-cooler devices, which are used during open-heart surgery to regulate a patient’s blood temperature. The health department has required both hospitals to replace those devices and follow new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines for sanitizing these devices.
There have been three patients who were infected at the Hershey hospital, and eight probable cases from the York County hospital including four deaths which may be attributed to the infection.
Medical malpractice for hospital acquired infections
Hospital acquired infections are fairly common, but they can be treated and resolved when they are caught right away. In cases where the infection does not get detected quickly and it is allowed to progress it can turn into sepsis and then septic shock. Sepsis can begin to damage internal organs and lead to death. If a patient becomes ill because of a hospital acquired infection they may be able to take legal action against the hospital in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The patient can speak to a medical malpractice attorney who would review their case and advise them of their chances of success in bringing a lawsuit against the doctor or hospital. If a patient died because of a preventable health care associated infection, a loved one may be able to file a wrongful death lawsuit in order to recover damages for their losses.
Christopher T. Nace works in all practice areas of the firm, including medical malpractice, birth injury, drug and product liability, motor vehicle accidents, wrongful death, and other negligence and personal injury matters.
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