132,000 U.S. women dying each year from iatrogenic infectious diseases...

From: yelxol (willlocksley_at_aol.com)
Date: 06/11/04 

Date: 11 Jun 2004 11:33:05 -0700

>From the book, "Fatal Probe".
Available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and other book stores.

CHAPTER IX

UNREGULATED PRIVATE PHYSICIANS: A MAJOR PROBLEM FOR WOMEN

In an average year in the U.S. there are 110 million gynecological
examinations in the offices of totally *unregulated* private
practitioners and clinics. At least 3.3 million of the women examined
are contracting infectious/contagious diseases.

  "...these iatrogenic infectious diseases are the
   direct cause of the deaths of 132,000 U.S. women…
   every year."

The Institute of Medicine estimates that over 100,000 patients die
every year in *highly regulated* U.S. hospitals as a result of medical
errors or mistakes…. and beginning in 1999 that dialogue was sold to
the American public in newspaper banners and on TV news programs
across
the nation. However, the important story is that 80% or 80,000 of
those 100,000 patients die from an infectious disease.

This fact – published by the CDC – was noted in earlier reports in
1999, but seldom mentioned when reported on in recent years. The
80,000 who die from infectious diseases are conveniently ‘bundled in'
with the other 20,000, most of whom did assumedly die because of
medical errors.

Why is this a big deal? Why is this noteworthy? For two primary
reasons:

1. Many, if not most of those 80,000 deaths (every year) are
preventable.
2. The 80,000 represent only 4% of the estimated 2,000,000 (two
million) hospital patients who are actually cross-infected every year
.

Most patient-to-patient infections are preventable because they are
primarily caused by the conscious, predetermined use of non-sterile
devices, non-sterile procedures, non-sterile techniques or some
combination thereof. Therefore, these 80,000 yearly deaths are not
‘medical errors' or ‘medical mistakes'.

They are caused by or the result of procedures put into place by
committees of hospital staffs that make decisions based on discussions
with staffs of other hospitals and medical institutions.

However, these general procedures are based primarily on the
ludicrous, irresponsible guidelines of the CDC and FDA .

A few examples of what causes patient cross-infection:

Failure to sterilize ALL reusable gynecological devices before reuse
is not a "medical error", it is a conscious decision.

Failure to use single-use lubricants instead of ‘community gel jars'
is not a "medical error", it is a conscious decision.

Failure to use sterile or sheathed endoscopes is not a "medical
error", it is a conscious decision.

Failure to use individually packaged sterile gloves instead of
non-sterile gloves from ‘community glove boxes' is not a "medical
error" , it is a conscious decision.

To be sure we understand the enormity of this:

Every year 80,000 patients die from preventable cross-infections while
seeking medical help in hospitals… a horrible, grotesque, agonizing,
slow death… that, in most cases, requires even more medical treatment
(money) than the original illness.

[Therefore, this "infection problem" is in actuality an income
producer for the medical profession of enormous proportions.]

Note: This is 20 times the number of deaths – each and every year – as
those caused by terrorists on the one-day attack at the World Trade
Center .

Humans do indeed become callous, thick-skinned and even apathetic to
recurrent, unceasing revulsions to which they are frequently exposed.

The loss of our naiveté as a result of the constantly repeated display
of violence and sexual explicitness in the print media, on television
and in the movies is a good example .

Private Offices

Though certainly shocking, the 80,000 deaths-from-infection only
includes the 33.6 million hospital admissions, not the 880 million
yearly visits to private clinics and physicians' offices, where
medical errors and infections are virtually impossible to track.

This is because there is virtually no oversight of private doctors and
clinics. The public is left to trust the doctors, nurses and other
staff to simply ‘do the right thing' and not cut corners… in the
privacy of their unregulated offices.

Self-Regulated

Because of this total absence of oversight and lack of infection
control units, it is safe to assume the risk of cross-infection is
significantly greater in private clinics and doctors' offices than in
hospitals.

Once an MD is licensed to practice in a state, there is no oversight
of his/her office practices. Therefore, there can be no doubt that the
level of standard associated with the examining rooms, the staff, the
techniques, the medical devices and the physicians affiliated with
private practices and clinics would be found far below those of a
highly regulated hospital environment.
Lack of concern for the safety of medical patients becomes clear when
one considers the fact that there is an oversight-type office
associated with almost every ‘blue collar' occupation in every county
government – plumbers, electricians, builders, et al.

Could our government leaders be telling us that the reverence of their
plumbing, electrical and building codes are more important than
whether or not irresponsible doctors are cross-infecting patients with
HIV, HPV, HCV and other deadly pathogens?

Hospitals are required to meet rigorous guidelines in order to pass
accreditation standards set by governing bodies, such as The Joint
Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).
Hospitals are also held to high standards by state and federal
agencies, and almost all hospitals staff an autonomous Infection
Control Unit.

In addition, because hospitals have substantially larger budgets,
there are far greater resources available to them for achieving and
maintaining considerably higher standards than the offices of private
physicians .

Comparing hospital infection control regulations and procedures with
those of physicians' offices and private clinics is certainly an
eye-opening view into the enormity of the dangers threatening the
private patient'.

However, a causal relationship or ratio between hospital-related
infections and all private office-related infections is not suggested.
After all, most office visits do not involve highly invasive
examinations, in which cross-infections are a much greater risk.

Gynecological Exams

The greater the number of patients of a facility who are infected with
one or more diseases, the more likely other patients of that same
facility will become cross-infected.

Though most office visits do not involve highly invasive examinations,
one large segment does.

More than 110 million of the 880 million yearly visits to private
physicians involve unregulated gynecological examinations , and there
is as great or greater potential of infection during a gynecological
exam than there is during many hospital visits. Combined with the fact
that the exam is a highly invasive procedure, a significant percentage
of OBGYN patient visits are occasioned by infectious disease
complaints.

Infectious disease accounted for 19.0% of the annual visits to private
physicians from 1980 through 1996 and visits for females was 27%
higher for infectious disease than for males. ,

"40% of new consultations with family doctors are for infectious
disease."

[In addition, it is important to remember that most ‘infectious
disease' hospital admissions are first seen in a private physician's
office.]

Using the 6% yearly infection rate from tightly regulated hospitals ,
we can estimate the number of women infected during visits to their
medical provider each year.

Data gathered from the CDC, the AMA and other organizations indicates
that, on average, women visit their doctor's office twice a year.
Therefore, we will use half of the 110 million office visits referred
to above as our base number.
Applying the 6% hospital infection rate to these 55 million women is
more than conservative, in that they are visiting their doctors twice
a year, instead of only once, as is the case with most all hospital
patients. This, of course gives them a greater ‘opportunity' of
infection.

Nonetheless, we will apply the conservative 6% rate to the 55 million
women, which indicates that 3.3 million women are cross-infected each
year with an infectious disease… during visits to their private doctor
or clinic.

As stated in the Introduction, some of these infections may result in
the patient becoming cross-infected with something as serious as a
life-threatening pathogen: i.e. HIV, HCV, HBV, CJD, HPV (cervical
cancer), something as unnerving and troublesome as a yeast infection
or one of a number of other infectious/contagious diseases.

An even more somber consideration is: How many of these 3.3 million
women die who contract these diseases, and how many of them ‘pass it
on to' (cross-infect) their mates… or to their children?

Again using the CDC numbers ascribed to hospital patients [4% of the 2
million infected hospital patients die from the disease], this would
indicate that these iatrogenic infectious diseases are the direct
cause of the deaths of 132,000 U.S. women… every year.

If that many women are being cross-infected every year, if that many
women are dying, then why isn't it in the news? Why haven't women
rallied to voice their concerns and complaints?

The Primary Reason:

Symptoms of these diseases do not manifest until 30 to 60 days - or
much longer - after the initial infection.

Also:

If patients do question their medical providers as to the possibility
of contamination during their office visits, they are scoffed at, told
the infection was either already present and lying dormant in their
system, or that they were infected after the exam.

They are asked if they have had any sexual activity since the exam or,
though it may seem ridiculous, within 20, 30 40 years prior to the
exam. [See Chapter V.]

The patient is told it would be impossible to contract a disease from
a medical instrument. In most cases, the patient has no choice but to
accept the word of the doctor. After all, they need her/his help to
cure the infection… so it would not be smart to question too much.

In Addition:

Private patient records are treated almost as the private property of
the physician or clinic, hospital records are randomly reviewed by
JCAHO [see above] and other oversight groups.

In order to stop the atrocious, medieval practice of using
non-sterilized gynecological medical instruments, specific rules and
protocols must be established that require the sterilization of those
reusable devices.

A comprehensive process should be devised that will monitor the
examining rooms, the staff, the procedures, the instruments and the
physicians affiliated with private practices and clinics; otherwise,
women will continue to be unknowingly and unnecessarily infected or
cross-infected at the hands of their medical providers.

>From "Fatal Probe", a book by Will Locksley
Available at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other fine book stores.

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