Erickson Bill to Reduce
Healthcare-Associated Infections Signed Into Law
Will spare patients
unnecessary pain, lower healthcare costs.
Harrisburg – Pennsylvania is poised to become a leader in
preventing, tracking and, ultimately, reducing the incidence
of healthcare‑acquired infections, with the signing into law
today of legislation sponsored by Sen. Ted Erickson
(R-Delaware.)
Senate Bill 968 will establish the steps to be taken by
state government agencies and healthcare facilities to
prevent, track, and reduce infections. It will require that
hospitals, nursing homes and ambulatory surgical facilities,
implement internal infection control plans to improve the
health and safety of patients and healthcare workers.
“The technology and resources are available to reduce
these infections, which now cause higher hospital bills,
unnecessary pain, and even death in some cases. This new law
launches a coordinated effort to attack this problem in an
effective, measurable way,” said Erickson, chairman of the
Senate Health and Welfare Committee. “I commend my
colleagues for acting promptly on my legislation, and the
governor for signing it into law.”
The senator noted that healthcare-associated infections
(HAIs) affect an estimated two million Americans a year,
with more than 100,000 dying from bacteria that are
increasingly resistant to common antibiotics. It’s estimated
that the average additional cost for a patient that develops
a healthcare‑associated infection is $8,832.
Other provisions of the law will:
- Ensure that hospitals conduct a strategic assessment of
the utility and efficacy of an electronic surveillance
system and implement such a system based on the assessment.
- Charge the state Patient Safety Authority with
overseeing the reporting of infections and tracking HAIs in
Pennsylvania.
- Require insurers and the Medical Assistance Program to
reimburse facilities for the cost of infection screenings
performed in accordance with an infection control plan.
- Provide a quality improvement payment to a healthcare
facility that reduces HAIs by 10 percent or more.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s
National Healthcare Safety Network internet-based
surveillance system will be the primary means for hospitals
to report healthcare‑associated infections to the Patient
Safety Authority, the state Health Department and the Health
Care Cost Containment Council.
Hospitals, nursing homes, and ambulatory surgical
facilities must implement an infection control plan by the
end of 2007. Facilities then have two months to report
infections to the CDC and its surveillance network.
Hospitals must ensure that their electronic or other
surveillance tracking system is in place by the end of 2008.
“This law will put Pennsylvania at the forefront in
preventing, tracking and, ultimately, reducing the incidence
of healthcare‑acquired infections,” said Erickson. “We may
not be able to totally eliminate such infections, but we are
past the point where they must be considered an inevitable
byproduct of healthcare. Many healthcare facilities have
taken steps to reduce HAIs in recent years. By working with
state government and the CDC, we will put a comprehensive
system in place to reduce discomfort, prevent deaths, and
lower healthcare costs.”
