Posted on 01/04/2008 8:10:27 AM PST by steve-b
IN Bethesda, Md., in a squat building off a suburban parkway, sits a small federal agency called the Office for Human Research Protections. Its aim is to protect people. But lately you have to wonder. Consider this recent case.
A year ago, researchers at Johns Hopkins University published the results of a program that instituted in nearly every intensive care unit in Michigan a simple five-step checklist designed to prevent certain hospital infections. It reminds doctors to make sure, for example, that before putting large intravenous lines into patients, they actually wash their hands and don a sterile gown and gloves.
The results were stunning. Within three months, the rate of bloodstream infections from these I.V. lines fell by two-thirds. The average I.C.U. cut its infection rate from 4 percent to zero. Over 18 months, the program saved more than 1,500 lives and nearly $200 million.
Yet this past month, the Office for Human Research Protections shut the program down. The agency issued notice to the researchers and the Michigan Health and Hospital Association that, by introducing a checklist and tracking the results without written, informed consent from each patient and health-care provider, they had violated scientific ethics regulations. Johns Hopkins had to halt not only the program in Michigan but also its plans to extend it to hospitals in New Jersey and Rhode Island....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
*sigh* It is the goal of governments to destroy any successful plan, and promote failure.
It is, of course, all George Bush’s fault...
I'm surprised that they don't teach that in medical school.
Ignatz Semmelweis is turning in his grave. Again.
They take shortcuts. They do an alcohol rub, glove, and partially drape the patients. They’re supposed to wash, gown, glove, and completely drape the patient with sterile covers.
One of the things about this JHU protocol was that any person, tech, nurse, whatever, who saw sterile technique broken, was empowered to call stop, and the whole procedure starts over again.
I hope to go into the ICU after I finish my BSN program, and I would like to find a culture there were even new nurses can say, hold on there, doc. But bureaucracy delays it again.
Just saw this a few minutes ago:
“Two mothers have died from an identical infection after giving birth at the same hospital on the same day. An expert said it was “extremely unlikely” that their deaths were not linked.
“Amy Kimmance, 39, and Jasmine Pickett, 29, had their babies at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester on December 21.
“Within 72 hours they had both died from complications linked to streptococcus A infection - known as Strep A - which normally causes sore throats.
“Teachers Amy Kimmance, 39, and Jasmine Pickett, 29, both died from an infection days after giving birth at the same hospital
“Winchester and Eastleigh Healthcare NHS Trust insisted investigations so far showed their deaths were coincidental.
“A spokeswoman said Mrs Kimmance developed fatal toxic shock syndrome as a result of a group A streptococcal infection while Mrs Pickett died from a sudden onset of severe pneumonia, likely to have been caused by a group A streptococcal infection.
“However, Mark Enright, professor of molecular epidemiology at Imperial College, London, said: “It’s extremely unlikely in my view that they are not linked.”
“Professor Enright said he believed a member of staff had been carrying the infection in their throat, got it on to their hands and passed it on.
“He said he would be interested to see the results of laboratory tests on the women to see if the identity of the bacteria was the same.
“The deaths raised fresh concern over hygiene and infection control practices in Health Service hospitals.
“Earlier this week David Cameron said hospitals would face hefty fines for each patient who catches a superbug if the Conservatives win power, saying infection levels of MRSA and C.diff, which cause several thousand deaths a year, were “unacceptable”.
“Mrs Kimmance, a teacher at St Swithun’s independent school for girls in Winchester, went home with her new daughter Tess to husband David and their two other children on the day she gave birth.
“Her condition suddenly deteriorated and she was readmitted to hospital on December 23 where she died of fatal toxic shock syndrome triggered by Strep A infection.
“A day later, on Christmas Eve, Mrs Pickett died after suddenly developing severe pneumonia, almost certainly caused by the same infection. She had given birth to her first child, a boy named Christopher.
“Both babies survived.
“Streptococcus A is not a superbug, which means if an individual has a sore throat it can be eradicated with antibiotics. But it can cause aggressive infections if it gets into the bloodstream.
“There are about 1,200 bloodstream infections linked to Strep A reported to the Health Protection Agency each year, some of which lead to death.
“The trust spokesman said that the maternity unit had remained open as there had been no results directly linking it or the staff with the cause of the fatalities.
“But she added that extensive swabbing of staff and the unit had been carried out as a precaution.
“She refused to confirm whether antibiotics had been given to staff and the families of the dead women, which would eradicate the infection. She added that a full investigation was taking place.
“The Royal Hampshire County Hospital missed its target for reducing MRSA last year and had 191 cases of the potentially deadly stomach bug C.diff between April 2006 and March
“Its kitchens were severely criticised last year and as a result it now has to submit to six-monthly inspections.
“Around 100 mothers die in the UK each year giving birth or shortly afterwards, about two a week.
They forgot
So an average of 83 deaths per month in Michigan due to bloodstream infections from IV lines in ICUs???
Still, shutting the program down is idiocy, reinforcing my view that the emphasis on "medical ethicists" lately is a scam to create jobs for unemployed philosophy PhDs.
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