MRSA: Consumers have launched a battle against hospital secrecy and demanded aggressive steps to control infections like MRSA. But in Washington state, MRSA rates remain hidden and state initiatives to combat the drug-resistant germ have come up short.
Seattle Times staff reporters
A night-shift nurse slipped into Jeanine Thomas’ hospital room and whispered, “I don’t know how you’re taking this so well. If I were you, I’d be curled up in a ball crying.”
The remark mystified Thomas. She’d had ankle surgery, and yes, there had been complications. But she thought she was recovering. Was there something she didn’t know?
In November 2000, Thomas, then a 45-year-old antiques dealer, had slipped on ice and shattered her left ankle outside her suburban Chicago home. But days after surgery at her local hospital, the skin surrounding the incisions turned black, and her body swelled. Doctors wanted to amputate, but Thomas, an avid tennis player, refused to let them.
Then, a friend told Thomas about her mother’s battle with MRSA, an antibiotic-resistant germ. Their symptoms matched. Thomas confronted a doctor and learned the truth: She, too, had MRSA. Only now did the nurse’s comment make sense.
Thomas asked doctors how many people get MRSA. She was met by silence.
“That’s when I knew — a light bulb went on in my head,” she says. “They don’t want anyone to know about this.”
Today, Thomas is exposing MRSA’s staggering toll as one of the nation’s most influential patient advocates. Because of her persistence, Illinois hospitals now must disclose MRSA infection rates and screen for the germ. She’s also pushing for federal legislation that could enhance patient safety in Washington and every other state.
Thomas epitomizes a revolt in health care. A growing number of consumer advocates — many bound by ordeals with MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — have vowed that if the U.S. hospital system will not heal itself, they will do it. (full story at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008403751_mrsaday3m0.html)
Given that we’ll be getting a brand spankin’ new president soon, the question of universal health care is on every one’s mind. “Yes, health care is a human right!” say the proponents. “No, it will dilute the level of care further, and socialism is against our capitalist principles!” say the critics. Unfortunately, we’re having the wrong conversation. Instead of, “who’s going to pay for all this?” we should be asking ourselves the question that any good health care system should be based on: “what can we do to make Americans healthier?” America pays the most per capita for health care, but is outperformed by many developed countries on virtually every health statistic you can name. The solution to America’s health care problem as I see it is preventative medicine. Discouraging tobacco use and obesity, encouraging proper diet and exercise, and yes controlling easily preventable hospital infections such as MRSA, VRSA, and C-Diff—all of these things cost next to nothing, prevent expensive and deadly complications that needlessly bloat our nation’s health care costs, and lead to a better quality of life for Americans.
So I’ve got a few suggestions for Barack:
1)Subsidize healthy Americans. Tax credits for everyone who rides a bike, doesn’t eat double whopper value meals five nights a week, doesn’t smoke, and takes vitamins. If you still want to eat double whopper value meals, go right ahead. Freedom of choice is the American way. But if you were thinking of quitting smoking already a big fat tax return might be a good reason to do it today. Sure, if you’re on an individual health care plan there are incentives for taking care of yourself, but if you’re on your office’s plan as most Americans are, you’re helping to pay for your boss’s triple-bypass that he’ll be having next week because he eats a mayonnaise and butter sandwich every day for lunch.
2)Send drug lobbyists packing. The patent monopoly that drug companies have on new medicines ensures that necessary medications will always cost way more than they’re worth. Also, big pharmaceuticals pay more for advertising than they do on R&D, which is a good sign that you need to reexamine your company’s mission statement.
3)Send tobacco lobbyists packing. I mean, come on. Seriously?
4)Pass federal hospital regulation legislation. Hospitals have to report all cases of hospital-acquired infections and adhere to federally mandated hygiene standards. To those who say this would be a bureaucratic inconvenience, I say 100,000 American hospital patients die every year from preventable errors. THAT IS A CRIME! Preventing these infections saves lives and drastically reduces the time and cost of hospital visits.
Do all these things, and I will gladly sign up for a continuance of my employer-based health care plan (even though it’s less than fantastic), an individual plan, or a universal health care plan. It’ll be much cheaper, and I may even consider riding my bike to work.
Comment by Nick — December 8, 2008 @ 12:49 pm