As the Supreme Court begins hearings on the health care overhaul law today, Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, wants the federal government to pay more attention to another aspect of health care — public reporting of hospital-acquired infections. Consumers Union President Jim Guest told us in a recent Roanoke visit that such reporting produces an important result.
Guest says more than 100,000 Americans die each year from infections they pick up while hospitalized.
The government is now releasing some hospital-acquired infection rates. Click here for a side-by-side comparison of LewisGale Health System’s and Carilion Clinic’s main facilities from the Department of Health and Human Services. (For information specifically related to this story, click the “Patient Safety Measures” tab on the left, then scroll down to “Hospital-Acquired Infections.”)
