Hospital Safety

What's New

Over 19,000 Pennsylvanians got infections while at Pennsylvania hospitals in 2005 due to inadequate sanitary practices and lax infection control procedures, according to a first-of-its kind report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council (PHC4). The report estimates that 2,400 patients lost their lives in Pennsylvania after contracting infections at the hospital.

PHC4's report is the first in the nation to use hospital-specific data to publicize the number of hospital-acquired infections and their impact on patients. PennPIRG has been working with Consumers Union for more than three years to urge PHC4 to publish these reports, and to urge hospitals to comply with reporting rules on infection rates. Read the news release here.

How You Can Help

If you or a loved one contracted an infection at a hospital, please share your story with us. By putting a human face on the problem, we can better convince hospital executives and policy makers in Harrisburg that this about real people's lives, not just statistics.

Click here to share your story.

Overview

A Pennsylvania state law requires that hospitals report how many patients get infections at their facilities as a result of inadequate sanitary practices or procedures. Letting the public know which hospitals have the best or worst infection rates allows patients to make informed choices about where to seek treatment, and pressures hospitals to improve their practices.

In November 2006, the first-ever hospital specific infection reports were released, allowing patients and their families to tell which hospitals need to make big improvements in patient safety. Now, we can hold the hospitals accountable for eliminating hospital acquired infections at their facilities.

PennPIRG is working with Consumers Union-the publisher of Consumer Reports-to keep pressure on hospitals to improve their compliance with the reporting rules, and to improve patient safety.

While the hospital should be a place of healing, lax safety precautions and improper cleaning leave many at risk. PennPIRG is working to make hospitals come clean with their record of hospital-aquired infections.

News

Pennsylvania Releases First-In-The-Nation Report Detailing Patient Infections for Each Hospital in the State: Consumer groups say report will spur hospitals to improve patient safety

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