Every year, 103,000 Americans die from infections they got while patients in a hospital.
"This is a very deadly problem. Every year in this county hospital infections kill as many people as AIDS, breast cancer and auto accidents combined," says former Lieutenant Governor Betsy McCaughey.
Among those killed was ABC sports reporter Dick Schaap. He developed an infection after hip surgery and died three months later.
His son Jeremy Schaap is a member of the Committee to Prevent Infection Deaths, which McCaughey founded after hearing countless stories of infection deaths.
McCaughey, a health policy analyst, blames high inflection rates on failure of hospitals to follow basic hygiene practices. She cites one study that found doctors wash their hands between patient visits only 48% of the time.
She is calling on the hospital industry to voluntarily reduce their infection rates and she wants the state Legislature to pass a bill requiring that hospital inflection rates be made public.
Three states-- Florida , Missouri and Pennsylvania --have such laws. In Great Britain , hospital infection rates has become a major political issue.
In New York , Senator Nick Spano (R-Westchester) and Assemblywoman Margaret Markey (D-Queens) have introduced hospital infection reporting bills. McCaughey says the measures don't go far enough in guaranteeing quick and easy public access.
The hospital industry denies it's become blasé about infection.
It cites national programs to help hospitals address the problem. For example, the board of the the Healthcare Association of NYS (HANYS) voted to participate in an Institute for Health Care Improvement initiative.
Kathleen Ciccone, a nurse and vice president of HANYS, says her association supports giving the public more information, but it has "technical" issues with how infection rates would be measured and reported.
Albany Medical Center Hospital is one of about 300 hospitals that voluntarily reports its infection rates to the Centers for Disease Control.
Medical Director Dr. John Morley says the CDC comparative reports allow the hospital to see where it needs to improve infection control.
However, it fails to distinguish between types of hospitals and the kinds of patients they treat.
He says any state system should take into account that large urban hospitals treat more very sick patients than smaller community hospitals. McCaughey agrees infection reports should be risk adjusted.
Prevention efforts have taken on greater emphasis, because an increasing number of germs are resistant to antibiotics.
McCaughey was lieutenant governor from 1995 though 1998.
