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Sepsis and Pneumonia from Hospital-Acquired Infections Killed 48,000 People in 2006

By Paul Napoli

February 24, 2010

A new study found that two common conditions caused by hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) killed 48,000 people and increased health care costs by $8.1 billion in 2006.

In a release yesterday, Resources for the Future said its Extending the Cure Study researchers analyzed 69 million discharge records from hospitals in 40 states, focusing on two health care-associated infections: sepsis, a potentially lethal systemic response to infection and pneumonia, an infection of the lungs and respiratory tract.

Antibiotic-resistant microbes often cause sepsis and pneumonia. Sepsis, a blood borne infection, can occur when doctors or the hospital do not follow sterile procedures during surgery. Pneumonia, when disease-causing microbes enter the lungs, can occur if the hospital uses a dirty ventilator tube.

The study report is published in the February 19, 2010 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

'In many cases, these conditions could have been avoided with better infection control in hospitals,' said Ramanan Laxminarayan, Ph.D., study author and principal investigator for Extending the Cure, a project examining antibiotic resistance based at the Washington, D.C. think-tank Resources for the Future. 'Infections that are acquired during the course of a hospital stay cost the United States a staggering amount in terms of lives lost and health care costs. Hospitals and other health care providers must act now to protect patients from this growing menace.'

The study looked at the costs associated with such preventable infections finding that people who developed sepsis after surgery stayed in the hospital 11 days longer and the infections cost an extra $33,000 to treat per person. Shockingly, the researchers learned that nearly 20% of people who developed sepsis after surgery died as a result. People who developed pneumonia after surgery stayed in the hospital an extra 14 days, costing an extra $46,000 per person in treatment. These patients died from the pneumonia 11% of the time.

'That's the tragedy of such cases,' said Anup Malani, a study co-author, investigator at Extending the Cure, and professor at the University of Chicago. 'In some cases, relatively healthy people check into the hospital for routine surgery. They develop sepsis because of a lapse in infection control—and they can die.'

Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that all hospital-acquired infections are associated with 99,000 deaths per year, this Extending the Cure study focused only on deaths directly resulting from, and not just associated with, these two specific preventable infections.

Hospital negligence can result in serious injuries and even deaths. If you have been injured as the result of negligence while you were a patient in a hospital, or if a loved one died due to hospital negligence, you may be able to file a claim and collect compensation for pain and suffering, lost wages, medical expenses and other losses. Some of the most common forms of hospital negligence include wrong-site surgeries, medication errors, surgical errors, development of hospital-acquired infections, improper use of anesthesia, improper treatment of a diagnosed medical condition, failure to monitor or stabilize a patient, or improper use of a medical device. Call Napoli Bern Ripka, LLP at 888-529-4669 today to discuss your legal options.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Paul Napoli

Full post as published by New York City Personal Injury Lawyer on February 25, 2010 (boomark / email).