Date: 2008-09-15
Speaker: TIM MURPHY (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Pennsylvania

Mr. Speaker. it seems like .every day in this House floor we call for a moment of silence to recognize some tragic loss of life across our country. And it is fitting that we do so. If we were to recognize with a moment of silence those who die in hospitals from avoidable infections. we would be stopping House business many times each day. So I am here to express my concern that we continue to ignore the increasing problem and potentially fatal epidemic of health careacquired infections. Another week goes by and more and more patients are becoming infected with preventable infections. And instead of tackling this issue headon. we continue to let the number of cases rise. And the costs strains our health care system. and more lives are lost. Well enough is enough. This year alone. up to today. there have been 1.243.835 cases of health careacquired infections. There have been a total of 61.562 deaths. And the total cost on our health care system has been $31 billion 95 million 999.420.07. By the end of this year. that estimate will be $50 billion and 100.000 lives lost. Something must be done. We must put selfinterests aside and work together to improve the safety* of our hospitals. And I am committed to making sure this happens. That is why I introduced legislation last year that saves lives and money. H.R. 1174. the Healthy Hospitals Act. And it has received strong bipartisan support and support from consumer gr6ups. This legislation offers a simple solution to lower the costs associated with health careacquired infections. It is not expensive. It simply requires hospitals to publicly disclose their infection rates and let the public see this transparently. Hospitals should be taking commonsense measures. like washing hands. sterilizing equipment between uses. testing patients and giving antibiotics at the right time. It is. after all. peop16s lives we are trying to save. How can a hospital or health care system argue that they dont want to report their infection rates if reporting is shown to save lives? How can hospitals complain that they dont want patients to know about patient safety and patient quality? Arent hospitals supposed to be in the business of saving lives? Hospitals need to be held accountable for opposing legislation. for opposing legislation. that would require reporting. because evidence shows it makes a difference. In my home State of Pennsylvania. there are shining examples of what happens when hospitals are held accountable for reporting. Hospitals in Pennsylvania are required by State law to make their infection rates public. and we have seen the infection rates drop dramatically. Some hospitals were able to get to a zero infection rate. no lives lost. And here is the mortality statistic. According to the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. the average charge of hospitalization for a patient who became infected with a hospitalacquired infection was $185.000 each. while the average charge for a patient without an infection was $31.000. Reporting infections is proven to save money and lives. Hospitals say "it will cost us more to keep track of it." That simply is not true. Isnt this enough to get our hospitals on board? Isnt this enough proof to save lives? Our health care system is in need of repair. not just simply saying it is too expensive. lets let government take it over. It needs to be fixed. While we continue to talk about reforming government. cutting costs and eliminating funding for infrastructure projects back home. I hope my colleagues in the health care industry will support commonsense legislation that will save money and lives. Public reporting of health care acquired infections is exactly what it sounds like. but the benefits of this simple action are far reaching. I hope that patients and their families will speak up to Members of Congress about the need for this transparency and demand such legislation be enacted. Mr. Speaker. I encourage all my colleagues and hospitals around the country. especially those hospitals that know this saves lives and money. to support public reporting of hospitalacquired infections. Lets do this right. Lets save lives. After all. the families of so many Americans are at stake here. We can act on this. We can make a difference. We can save lives and save money.