Posts Tagged: hospital acquired infections

Hiding from infection data at Chicago hospitals

For the first time, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a comprehensive study of “adverse events” caused by mistakes or incompetence at hospitals. The American Hospital Association, unsurprisingly, fought the release of a report that shows hospital errors cause 100,000 deaths each year.  One source of this resistance is coming from Chicago. Judith Graham of the Chicago Tribune reports that “Chicago’s top medical centers appear on the list of hospitals with safety issues, to one extent or another.” But officials at some of these hospitals question the government’s method of counting infections and claim the government report doesn’t take into account corrective changes the hospitals have made.

FDA: fighting drugs in animals

Gardiner Harris reports in the New York Times that the Food and Drug Administration is pushing to limit the use of antibiotics in animal feeding “in hopes of slowing the growing scourge of killer bacteria.”  However, as Harris notes, “[i]n the battle between public health and agriculture, the guys with the cowboy hats generally win.” (more…)