For Immediate Release: Feb. 21, 2006

Senate committee hears hospital-acquired infection bill

Olympia - The Senate Health and Long-term Care Committee had it's first hearing on a major health bill to require state hospitals to report on instances of patients who are infected because of their hospital stay. The House passed House Bill 1015, sponsored by Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Roy),  last week by a 59 to 39 vote.

The bill would require all state hospitals to track information on hospital-acquired infections and report the information to the Department of Health. Campbell told the committee that each year across the nation two million patients are infected by diseases because of their hospital stay and 90,000 of those infected die from the exposure.

"A requirement for hospitals to collect data on hospital-acquired infections and report their findings to DOH will, in itself, push the hospitals to be aware of the problems their operations are creating," he said.

Pennsylvania and Florida have adopted similar law, and Campbell said he wants Washington to follow suit.

The committee heard from a Bainbridge Island father, who testified in support of Campbell's measure. He told the Senate committee that his 15-month-old daughter was infected because of her Seattle hospital stay. "What was supposed to be a three-day hospital stay became a 57-day stay," he said. 

As written, the bill will require hospitals that provide acute care to collect information about infections that occur because of such factors as a surgery site that isn't disinfected from surgery to surgery, ventilator-associated pneumonia, central line bloodstream infections and urinary tract infections. While DOP would publish reports on the infections and the frequency, it would not identify individual hospitals.

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For more information, contact Rep. Tom Campbell, (360) 786-7912