The Dirty Truth

Spread the Word, not the Germ.

Insight from California Safe Patient Network
Posted by Daniela at 06/12/09 04:14 PM
Guest blogger, Holly Harris from San Diego, shares what she learned at the California Safe Patient Network meeting and calls on us to join and spread the word about preventable medical harm. Read More »
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Not Another Ten Years
Posted by Daniela at 05/22/09 05:47 PM
Our new report To Err is Human – To Delay is Deadly calls attention to the IOM’s unfulfilled call to action. Read More »
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Secretary Sebelius calls on hospitals to fight hospital-acquired infections
Posted by Daniela at 05/21/09 12:06 PM
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, tells hospitals to take “basic steps to fight infections” that harm millions of patients every year and add billions to our nation's health care costs. Read More »
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Breaking News: Handwashing Saves Lives
Posted by Daniela at 05/07/09 05:18 PM
We have said many times that handwashing makes a difference in stopping hospital acquired infections. Like us, President Obama acknowledges the importance of hand hygiene to prevent illness. Read More »
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Activists speak out at Presidential health care forum
Posted by Daniela at 04/10/09 05:06 PM
Your stories matter. We are listening—and we’re getting those at the highest levels of government to listen, too. Read More »
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Raise your hand if you've had a hospital-acquired infection
Posted by Daniela at 03/27/09 03:32 PM
More people know about hospital acquired infections and medical errors than you might think, and not just from watching Oprah. Read More »
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Watch these personal stories -- Quality Care Saves Lives!
Posted by Daniela at 03/17/09 02:50 PM
I’d like to point you to four brave patients, who debuted their videos to lawmakers at the Massachusetts State House and encouraged them to take an active role to improve patient safety. Read More »
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Medical Mistakes show on Oprah
Posted by Daniela at 03/13/09 09:49 AM
Did you catch the Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday about medical mistakes? She featured actor Dennis Quaid who recalled the series of hospital errors that nearly killed his newborn twins after they were given one thousand times the amount of the blood-thinning drug Heparin—twice. Read More »
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Drop in some MRSA infections in ICUs
Posted by Daniela at 02/20/09 06:03 PM
A new JAMA study confirms what we’ve been saying all along: public reporting of hospital infections leads to reduction of infections! Read More »
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Former skeptic believes in preventing hospital infections
Posted by Daniela at 02/19/09 02:09 PM
A few years ago, Dr. Manoj Jain was skeptical of hospital infection reduction—thinking hospital infections were the norm for ICU patients Read More »
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Seattle PI: U.S. pigs and farmers carry MRSA but federal food safety agencies are doing little to see if the pork is safe
Posted by Daniela at 01/27/09 04:49 PM
Seattle PI reports on a new study that found pigs and workers on several Midwestern farms are colonized with MRSA. Read More »
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CMS decisions on non-payment for surgical errors
Posted by Daniela at 01/16/09 05:07 PM
It's official. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will no longer pay for surgery in which certain “never events” occur: wrong surgery, wrong patient, wrong body part. Read More »
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Patients Right to Know
Posted by Daniela at 01/14/09 04:00 PM
Colorado Citizens for Accountability has launched its new patient safety website: PatientsRightToKnow.org. It contains a U.S. map where you can find out what physician background reporting is available in your state. Read More »
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HHS releases plan to prevent health care-associated infections
Posted by Daniela at 01/08/09 01:53 PM
This week the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released its “Action Plan to Prevent Healthcare-Associated Infections” which sets five-year prevention targets for six major types of infection. Such as (from Table 1): • A 30% reduction in C. difficile • A 25% reduction in urinary catheter infections • A 50% reduction in MRSA infections Read More »
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20 Things You Didn't Know About…Hygiene
Posted by Daniela at 01/05/09 03:38 PM
Here’s one thing you might not know: On average, doctors and nurses clean their hands between patients only 50% of the time. Read More »
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Fund the Texas hospital infection reporting law
Posted by Daniela at 12/12/08 02:58 PM
In 2007, the Texas legislature had a brilliant idea. They passed a law that required the Texas Department of State Health Services to make public health care acquired infection rates for several surgical procedures and bloodstream infections in hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and children’s hospitals by no later than June 1, 2008. Read More »
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MRSA series: Culture of Resistance
Posted by Daniela at 11/21/08 03:03 PM
The Seattle Times’ new three-part series on MRSA, the antibiotic-resistant superbug that’s killing thousands of hospital patients every year made me want to wash my hands over and over like Lady Macbeth. Read More »
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"I don't want to die (in the hospital)"
Posted by Daniela at 11/17/08 05:05 PM
While he may not be singing about hospital infections specifically, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band humorously assemble the jolting anxiety we’d feel as a hospital patient trying to get out... Read More »
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Old Blood for Halloween
Posted by Daniela at 10/31/08 04:46 PM
Patients given blood transfusions of blood stored 29 days or longer are twice as likely to get a hospital-acquired infection as those receiving newer blood, according to researchers at Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey. Read More »
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Mother against medical error
Posted by Daniela at 10/07/08 01:48 PM
Helen Haskell, founder of Mothers Against Medical Error (MAME), became a patient safety advocate after her 15 year old son died from a medical error in 2000. Watch her story. Read More »
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NYT calls for doctors to be included in Medicare non-payment rules
Posted by Suzanne Henry at 10/06/08 01:15 PM
The New York Times came out Sunday with a strong call for making the new Medicare rule to stop paying for care needed after hospitals harm their patients apply to physicians too, stating the current policy lets "doctors off scot-free." Read More »
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SC activist Dianne Parker fights for safer care
Posted by Daniela at 10/03/08 11:19 AM
Dianne Parker became a lead patient safety activist after her husband, Willie, died from a combination of medical errors and a hospital-acquired MRSA infection. Watch her story... Read More »
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Actor, cancer survivor talks about being a “bad” patient
Posted by Daniela at 10/03/08 10:35 AM
“Sex and the City” actor, Evan Handler, had it hard enough fighting leukemia in his early adulthood, and now he’s speaking out about his experience with medical errors and life after cancer. Read More »
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Medicare won't foot the bill for medical errors
Posted by Daniela at 10/01/08 04:09 PM
Effective today, Medicare will stop compensating hospitals for the additional costs to treat patients who suffered from certain preventable infections and errors due to bad medical care. Read More »
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The better half: California hospital infection reporting bills signed into law!
Posted by Daniela at 09/26/08 04:29 PM
California becomes 25th state to require public reporting of hospital infections and 4th state to require MRSA screening of certain patients. Read More »
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