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Don’t bring a deadly infection home from the hospital
You go to the hospital to get better. But too often, the opposite happens. One in 25 patients, or about 720,000 Americans each year, pick up an infection while in the hospital. Nasty ones, too, that may not be treatable with antibiotics and, too often, are fatal.
Just one of those infections—caused by the bacterium clostridium difficile, or C. diff—sickens about 450,000 people per year and kills almost 30,000, according to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And Consumer Reports’ research shows that many hospitals don’t do a good job of controlling the infections: Three out of 10 hospitals in our hospital Ratings got low marks for not keeping C. diff in check, and four out of 10 got low marks for not reining in another deadly infection, MRSA, or methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
Those and other infections are spreading to doctors’ offices, nursing homes, other health care facilities—even people’s homes. That’s partly because many patients don’t know they have developed an infection until after they’re discharged: Though two-thirds of C. diff infections were linked to health care facilities, only 24 percent of infected people developed symptoms while hospitalized, according to a February 2015 study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Here’s how to protect yourself:
See our Ratings of hospitals in your area on infections and other measures. And read more about how to stay safe in the hospital.
Hospitals are breeding grounds for dangerous infections, in part because of rampant misuse of antibiotic drugs. In 2010, almost a third of hospital patients were given at least one dose of powerful broad-spectrum antibiotics, which target multiple bacteria types at once. Those drugs should be reserved for the hardest-to-treat infections. But at least 30 percent of prescriptions written for antibiotics in hospitals are unnecessary or inappropriate, according to the CDC.
The drugs increase infection risk in two ways. They can kill off healthy gut bacteria, allowing harmful bacteria to strike, says Clifford McDonald, M.D., a senior advisor at the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. And antibiotic overuse breeds “superbugs,” bacteria that are resistant to many of the drugs.
So it’s vital that your doctor and hospital use antibiotics appropriately. “That doesn’t mean avoiding them altogether,” says John Santa, M.D., medical director for Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. Instead, if you’re prescribed an antibiotic, ask the doctor to first determine what type of infection you have, if any, and to prescribe a drug, for the shortest time needed, that targets the infecting bacterium.
Also ask your doctor about probiotics. Some research suggests that hospital patients who take certain good bacteria—in pills or possibly just in yogurt—are less likely to suffer from C. diff. The probiotics may encourage the growth of healthy gut bacteria, which may protect against the harmful kind. Last, insist that everyone—doctors, nurses, and visitors—wash their hands before they touch you.
“Everyone leaving the hospital needs to assume they may have been infected,” says Lisa McGiffert, director of Consumer Reports’ Safe Patient Project. So watch for diarrhea, fever, or other warning signs. Adults over 65 are especially vulnerable, in the hospital and at home. But anyone on antibiotics, infants, and people with a compromised immune system also face increased risks.
“So good hygiene after a hospital stay is key,” McGiffert says. That means careful hand washing and, if someone has an infection, these extra precautions:
- Clean frequently touched surfaces with 1 part bleach mixed with 10 parts water.
- Try to reserve a bathroom for the infected person. “Think about what they do in hospitals,” McGiffert says. “They isolate infected patients.”
- Don’t share towels or toiletries.
—Ian Landau
This article also appeared in the June 2015 issue of Consumer Reports on Health.
Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Copyright © 2006-2015 Consumers Union of U.S.
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