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public reporting

Consumer voices to be heard at national hospital infection meeting

Meet the eleven consumer advocates who will be attending a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS)hospital infection meeting this week.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
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Consumers win on reporting surgical infection rates in CA

Last week, California hospitals lost their bid to avoid reporting their infection rates to the public. A California judge upheld a 2008 state law – one of the strongest in the nation – that calls on hospitals to report infections occurring from a broad array of surgeries.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
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A Shot In The Dark: Not Enough California Healthcare Workers are Getting Flu Shots

It’s the start of flu season and you might be worried about the spread of germs. We’re worried too. Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project released a report today that found nearly half of all hospital workers in California didn’t get flu shots during the 2008-2009 flu season.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
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MRSA Study Indicates Good News But Far Too Many Patients Suffering

Last week’s good news of a decline in serious MRSA health care-acquired infections, is a victory for patient safety, but we still have a long way to go to eliminate this very preventable crisis.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
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Victory for patients! Public reporting of certain infections will go nationwide

Soon it will be easier for you to find out how well your hospital prevents certain infections. As part of the new health care reform law, the Department of Health and Human Services will require hospitals to publicly disclose several types of dangerous hospital infections.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
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Patient safety activists hold “conversation” with CDC

On June 16, Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project and 11 patient safety advocates from 10 states attended the first “Consumer Conversation on Healthcare-Associated Infections” at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections, MRSA
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New CDC report on CLABSIs: One step forward, many more to go

This week the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a state-specific report (not hospital specific) on rates of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) in the ICU as collected by its National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), a monitoring system that looks at hospital infections across the nation.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
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Jon Stewart: What If We Classified Hospital Infections as Terrorists?

Surgeon and author Atul Gawande, M.D., discusses the surgical checklist on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
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CDC Endorses Public Reporting of Hospital Infections

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a very clear statement today on public reporting of infection rates, prompted by the Consumer Reports article “Deadly Infections” – a real step forward!

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
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Hospitals, get with the program

Hospital-acquired infections rarely make national headlines, but today, “Deadly infections” hits magazine racks across America in the March 2010 issue of Consumer Reports, published by Consumers Union.

Categories: Hospital Acquired Infections
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