Via The New York Times: Culture of Secrecy Shields Hospitals With Outbreaks of Drug-Resistant Infections. Excerpt from a disturbing report:
In January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out an urgent public alert about a deadly bacteria, resistant to virtually every known antibiotic, that sickened more than a dozen Americans who had elective surgery at Grand View Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico.
But when similar outbreaks take place at hospitals on American soil, the C.D.C. makes no such public announcement. That is because under its agreement with states, the C.D.C. is barred from publicly identifying hospitals that are battling to contain the spread of dangerous pathogens.
The rise of a deadly drug-resistant fungus called Candida auris, a focus of a New York Times report last weekend, has raised fresh questions about the secrecy enveloping infectious outbreaks at American medical institutions.
Patient advocates say hospitals and health authorities are often slow to alert the public about drug-resistant germs, potentially endangering patients.
“They might not get up and go to another hospital, but patients and their families have the right to know when they are at a hospital where an outbreak is occurring,” said Lisa McGiffert of the Patient Safety Action Network. “That said, if you’re going to have hip replacement surgery, you may chose to go elsewhere.”
Kevin Kavanagh, board chairman of the advocacy group Health Watch USA, contrasted the C.D.C.’s handling of the infections in Tijuana with a 2016 outbreak of a different drug-resistant pathogen, known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, at a rural hospital in Kentucky. It was not until early 2018 that the C.D.C. issued a report on that outbreak — and even then, the agency did not name the hospital where it occurred.
CRE sometimes kills up to half of people infected. No deaths were reported in the Kentucky outbreak, but at least two dozen patients at the hospital were colonized with the bug, meaning they were not sick but could have spread it to others.
The report identified a cleaning cart as a possible source for the spread of the pathogen, which had traveled between the hospital’s emergency room and its surgical ward.
The C.D.C. declined to comment, but in the past officials have said their approach to confidentiality is necessary to encourage the cooperation of hospitals and nursing homes, which might otherwise seek to conceal infectious outbreaks.
Those pushing for increased transparency say they are up against powerful medical institutions eager to protect their reputations, as well as state health officials who also shield hospitals from public scrutiny.
