Morning Report: Seattle and National News Roundup

Washington bill would require MRSA screening 

All hospital patients would be screened for the super bug known as MRSA and those at high risk would be tested for the antibiotic-resistant bacterium under proposed legislation, the Seattle Times reports in its Dec. 28th issue.

Patients who tested positive for MRSA, Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, would be isolated in private rooms to protect other patients from the difficult-to-treat pathogen.

“The measures, if passed, would establish Washington as one of five states that have taken extraordinary steps to mandate how medical centers battle germs and protect patients,” Times reporters Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong write.

The bill would also require hospital to publicly disclose their MRSA infection rates.

To learn more:

• Read the article by Berens and Armstrong in the Seattle Times: “Bill would require tests of MRSA at hospitals“
• Read LocalHealthGuide’s posts: Seattle Times series focuses on spread of MRSA superbug in local hospitals and Health officials respond to Seattle Times’ series on MRSA superbugs
• Read the Seattle Times series “Culture of Resistance“.
• Read the report by the Governor’s panel: Evidence-Based Monitoring Strategy and Interventions for Antibiotic Resistant Organisms.
• Visit the Washington State Department of Health’s information page on MRSA, which has a link to information for health-care workers.
• Visit the website of the CDC’s National MRSA Education Initiative.
• Visit the CDC’s webpage on MRSA in health-care settings.

To cut costs end fee-for-service health care and pass savings on to patients

“The only truly promising way to save money is to change the way health care is organized and delivered,” writes Stanford economist Alain Enthoven in a Dec. 28 New York Times op-ed piece .

Enthoven writes that 85% of U.S. doctors work in small, fee-for-service practices and so have little incentive to control costs and lack the ability to improve the quality of care that larger group practices have.

“Some American medical practices do emphasize economy,” Enthoven writes. “They are very large, multispecialty group practices in which doctors work together to improve quality and keep costs low. Their doctors share values and cultures of teamwork. They keep comprehensive electronic medical records, they share information, and they emphasize disease prevention and chronic disease management as a matter of course.”

“These doctors are usually paid salaries, not fees for services. Research and experience suggests that these practices — which exist in all regions of the country, including both rural and urban communities — can reduce costs by 30 percent,” Enthoven writes.

Health-care reform should promote such practices and then change the health insurance system so that the savings are passed along to patients wh0 choose such plans.  

“In 10 years, cost could be reduced by 30 percent, saving more than $700 billion a year,” writes Enthoven, “all driven by incentives and voluntary actions.”

To learn more:

• Read Enthoven’s New York Times op-ed piece: “Health Care With a Few Bucks Left Over“
• Read: Health Care “Job Lock” Stifles Entrepreneurship

Seattle Post-Intelligencer questions Gregoire’s proposed health-care cuts

In an effort to balance the state’s hard-hit budget, Washington Governor Christine Greqoire has proposed a 42 percent cut in the state’s Basic Health Plan, a plan that helps provide coverage to state residents who can’t find other health insurance.

Gregoire’s proposed cut “deserves careful scrutiny for potential long-range debilitation of a vital program,” says the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in a Dec. 28 editorial.

“No matter how carefully BHP cuts are managed, more people will have no option other than expensive emergency-room care. More than ever, mental health problems could end up being treated in jails, especially since cash and medical support for disabled adults will be cut off,” the P-I warns.

To learn more:

• Read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s editorial: Health care costs: Now versus later.
• Visit Washington State’s Basic Health Plan Web site.

Tags: Health Insurance, Health-care Reform, Hospital Infections, MRSA, Quality Improvement

Category: Health Insurance, Health-care Policy, Hospital News, Infections, Insurance