Consumer Reports poll: Most of us want hospitals to tell public about errors, infections

The public worries about hospital-acquired infections and medical harm. And consumers want to know how individual hospitals are doing when it comes to keeping patients safe, according to a survey released Thursday by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.

More than three-fourths of those polled "expressed high or moderate concern" that they or a family member could be hurt by a hospital infection while being treated at a hospital. And 71 percent were equally concerned about harm from a medication error, while two-thirds were worried about surgical errors.

But the big number — 96 percent — came when asked if hospitals should be required to tell the health departments in their states when they make a medical error. And 82 percent believe the public should be able to find that out, as well.

Infections that occur as a result of treatment in a hospital or other health care facility are called nosocomial infections. That's what they are considered if they first appear 48 hours or more after hospital admission or within 30 days after discharge. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that roughly 1.7 million hospital-associated infections, from all types of microorganisms including bacteria, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year.

Some states have passed laws that require hospitals to report certain types of medical harm to their health departments. Only 10, though, require that those reports be made public. In Utah, specific types of medical errors or patient harms must be reported to the Utah Department of Health, says department spokeswoman Charla Haley. But those reports are not made public.

The argument has frequently been made that public disclosure has a chilling effect on reporting and that it's more important for health officials and experts to know so they can try to reduce the numbers. That's something that would not happen as readily if facilities had to worry about that public perception, they argue.

The Consumer Reports survey follows on the heels of a November 2010 report by the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of Health and Human Services that found one in seven Medicare patients experienced serious or long-term medical harm or even death as they were being treated in a hospital. And a similar number experienced temporary harm. Researchers said that, just among those covered by Medicare, hospital infections and medical errors added an additional $4.4 billion to the bill for hospital care and it "contributed to" 180,000 deaths each year.