For Immediate Release
6/26/07

CONTACT:

Michele Hansarick
(717) 787-1350

Senate Approves Erickson Plan to Reduce Healthcare-Associated Infections

Designed to improve care, lower healthcare costs.

Harrisburg – Legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Erickson (R-26) to reduce the number of healthcare‑associated infections was approved by the Senate today.

Senate Bill 968 would establish the roles of state government and healthcare facilities in reducing the incidence of infections.

"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that healthcare-associated infections affect two million patients a year, with more than 100,000 dying from bacteria that are increasingly resistant to common antibiotics," said Erickson.   "A recent examination of data from 1.7 million admissions from 77 hospitals showed that the average additional cost for patients with an HAI was $8,832.  Reducing infections would lower costs, spare patients of unnecessary pain and discomfort, and improve overall quality." 

The Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, chaired by Erickson, held a hearing in June and learned that resistant staph infections dropped 90 percent at an Allegheny County hospital after it began testing incoming ICU patients and isolating carriers of resistant strains. Other hospitals in the region took a similar approach and reduced such infections by 63 percent. 

Passage of Senate Bill 968 would build on such efforts underway in many healthcare facilities to reduce HAIs and move all hospitals in the commonwealth to much lower rates of healthcare‑associated infections, the senator said. The legislation would do the following:

• Require that all healthcare facilities, including hospitals and nursing homes, implement infection control plans.
• Charge the state Patient Safety Authority with overseeing the reporting of infections and tracking HAIs in Pennsylvania in comparison to national incidence rates.
• Require that insurers and the Medical Assistance Program reimburse for the cost of infection screenings.
• Provide for incentive payments for healthcare facilities that reduce HAIs.

Passage of the legislation follows a committee hearing earlier this month featuring testimony from healthcare providers and experts in the field.  On Monday, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology reported that a dangerous, drug-resistant staph germ may be infecting as many as five percent of hospital and nursing home patients, Erickson noted. 

"Reducing the incidence of infections acquired in healthcare facilities is an approach that has broad support. It's nonpartisan and it's doable, right now," said Erickson. "Many hospitals and healthcare workers have been striving in recent years to reduce these infections. I believe the time is right for a coordinated, statewide effort."

Senate Bill 968 will be sent to the House of Representatives for consideration.