Bacterial infections are a huge concern in the field of medicine today. For example, in 2005 approximately 19,000 people were killed in the United States due to bacterial infections. Data from the same year shows that 100,000 people were infected with MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), a type of bacteria that is resistant to antibiotics like penicillin. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have also revealed that the proportion of hospital or healthcare-related staphylococcal infections that are due to MRSA has been steadily increasing. Approximately 85% of all infections were contracted in healthcare facilities.
All of these numbers are quite alarming, considering that patients and their family members put their trust and faith in these hospitals to protect their health and well-being. Bacterial infections worsen the condition of patients and put them at risk even inside a healthcare institution. The epidemic of hospital-acquired bacterial infections is prevalent across the entire country and throughout the world. Making things worse is the fact that these infections are usually caused by the healthcare provider’s fault or negligence.
Hospitals are required to maintain sanitary facilities and equipment, and to ensure that staff, devices and everything used in the hospitals are properly sanitized. Patient exposure to all kinds of different diseases while in the hospital is not an excuse for the prevalence of such bacterial infections in our hospitals. While the public needs a definitive response that will address this concern directly through the development of antibiotics and better facilities, hospitals need to comply with the standards that are expected of them.
Once a patient is infected, their hospital stay is extended, sometimes for weeks or months. Of the 1.7 million Americans who are infected in hospitals each year, at least 99,000 of them die from those infections. In fact, because many of these infections are preventable by the hospital, and because there are so many of them, Medicare has determined they would no longer pay hospitals for treating patients who had acquired infections during their hospital stay. Many insurers have followed suit.
If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with an infection that was contracted in a hospital or another medical care facility, contact the Rhode Island hospital infection attorneys at the law offices of d’Oliveira & Associates at 1-800-992-6878.
d’Oliveira & Associates401 ARNOLD RD.
Coventry, RI 02816
(401) 823-3444