Hospitals are 17 percent less likely to make you sicker than they were four years ago, according to a
new report from the federal government. That means you and your loved ones are less likely to get a hospital-based infection, get the wrong medication, fall, get bed sores, or get injured in other ways. The push to make hospitals safer came from Obamacare and it's saved
50,000 lives.
That translates to 1.3 million fewer harmful incidents than if the 2010 rate had held constant and 50,000 fewer patients death.
The declines span all different types of care. Surgical infections fell by 19 percent. Pressure ulcers (which patients often develop spending days lying in bed) declined by 20 percent.
The biggest decline by far was among central-line-related infections, which can happen when bacteria infect a patient through a catheter delivering medication or fluids.
The decline in hospital-related injuries and infections has been accompanied by a similar decline in readmissions, when patients have to return to the hospital because of problems related to their care. The administration estimates that has saved 15,000 lives in the same time period. Both trends can be directly tied to Obamacare and other programs which have targeted hospital safety since 2010.
The law created financial penalties for hospitals with high readmission and patient harm rates among Medicare patients and those penalties kicked in in 2010. Another government program called Partnership for Patients has enrolled 3,700 hospitals—covering about four out of five hospital patients—in collaborative efforts to figure out how to increase patient safety. And on top of that, private insurers have also begun tying payments to quality of care in hospitals.
It's saving insurance companies and the federal government—and all of us who pay insurance premiums and taxes—a lot of money. But it's also saving tens of thousands of lives. That's damned hard to argue against. So you can expect Republicans to just ignore it.