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A veil of secrecy shields hospitals where outbreaks occur
LA Times ^ | 4-18-15 | Melody Petersen

Posted on 04/19/2015 3:50:16 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

The cardiac surgeon had unknowingly spread a staph infection from the rash on his hand to the hearts of at least five patients by the time Los Angeles County health investigators learned of the outbreak.

The doctor had operated on more than 60 others in recent months, and county officials feared those patients could be struck with the same dangerous infection.

Investigators didn't ultimately tie any deaths to the 2012 outbreak, but four patients needed additional surgery because of the infection.

The only public mention of the case came a year later in a little-noticed appendix to the health department's 350-page annual report. It referred only to "Hospital A." Even now, the name of the hospital remains secret.

L.A. County health officials investigate and confirm an infection outbreak inside one of the county's hospitals once or twice a month. The public rarely finds out which hospital is involved, how many patients were stricken or whether any died.

The secrecy surrounding hospital outbreaks runs counter...

(Excerpt) Read more at touch.latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: cardiacsurgeon; hospitals; infectiousdisease; secrecy; staph; staphinfection

1 posted on 04/19/2015 3:50:16 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

A former employee of ours had a mild stroke recently and went to the hospital to have a stent inserted. He was doing fine and then 5 days later was overwhelmed by a staph infection and was dead.


2 posted on 04/19/2015 3:52:33 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Please don’t think this will get better when Obamacare is all we have left. I worked in the NHS in Britain and, trust me, NO ONE is ever held accountable when there are blatant mistakes. That’s what you get when you only have ‘free’ Government health care.


3 posted on 04/19/2015 3:53:44 PM PDT by originalbuckeye (Not my circus, not my monkeys.......)
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To: afraidfortherepublic
You wouldn't believe the things hospitals can get by with.


4 posted on 04/19/2015 4:02:04 PM PDT by capt. norm (Don't worry if plan A fails, there are 25 more letters in the alphabet.)
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To: originalbuckeye

I can teel ya’ some stories about th3 ol’ NHS.


5 posted on 04/19/2015 4:02:49 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (The White House is now known as "Casa Blanca".)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

back a number of years ago I think it was Parade Magazine published an article of the top infectious hosptials in the country . Our big Medical center made tops of the list.

Now there is no way one can find this information it has been buried.


6 posted on 04/19/2015 4:05:02 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftist totalitarian fascism is on the move.)
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