Hospital Safety

What's New

MASSPIRG supports legislation to reduce rates of hospital-acquired infections to zero, or as close as feasible, in accordance with the recommendation of the state Department of Public Health. In addition, Hospitals will be required to disclose and publicly report hospital-acquired infection rates.

An estimated 90,000 people die each year from unrelated infections they get while in the hospital. More people die of hospital-acquired infections than from auto accidents and homicides combined.

And right now, you have no way of knowing how safe or unsafe your hospital is. Hospitals are not required to make their infection rates public to anyone! One out of every twenty hospital patients contract infections each year – costing us all nearly $5 billion annually! Giving the public access to this important information will allow consumers to make more educated decisions about their health and also encourage hospitals to work harder to lower their infection rates as well as.

Overview

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 90,000 patients die every year due to infections acquired at hospitals.

Yet we do not require hospitals to publicly disclose and 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.

MASSPIRG is working with Consumers Union—the publisher of Consumer Reports—and Health Care For All to require hospitals to disclose hospital infection rates and to reduce the infection rate to zero.