Re: Infectious Hospitals?

From: David Wright (wright_at_clam.prodigy.net)
Date: 06/23/04 

Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 02:57:16 GMT

In article <a71be19b.0406212006.95a3ef6@posting.google.com>,
yelxol <willlocksley@aol.com> wrote:
>wright@clam.prodigy.net (David Wright) wrote in message
>news:<tWlBc.3049$TY7.592@newssvr32.news.prodigy.com>...
>> In article <a71be19b.0406201100.da4d257@posting.google.com>,
>> yelxol <willlocksley@aol.com> wrote:
>> >Brad Edwards <bradedwards@emailaccount.com> wrote in message
>> >news:<40d505fb$0$2988$61fed72c@news.rcn.com>...
>> >> I don't visit hospitals very often. Not long ago I went to discuss
>> >> something with a doctor and left with a severe case of the flu. My
>> >> friend had to go to get a vaccination, and left with tonsillitis. Are
>> >> these two isolated incidents, or do you also notice that people often
>> >> visit a hospital for one reason, and leave with an unrelated infection?
>> >
>> >According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), U.S. hospitals kill
>> >about 100,000 patients every year. But the CDC estimates that more
>> >than 80% of them ? 80,000 ? die from an infectious disease,
>> >which is about 4% of "an estimated 2 million annual infections."
>>
>> According to articles that analyzed the IOM's estimates, those
>> estimates are quite dubious. But you won't bother with that little
>> fact, because it'd interfere with your crusade.
>>
>> -- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net
>
>Sorry. I may not have been clear:
>
>The annual 80,000 iatrogenic deaths were CDC's numbers... not the
>IOM's.
>Therefore, whether the IOM estimates are dubious is a relatively small
>consideration... by comparison, that is.
>Because this only brings into question the 20,000 "deaths by mistake"
>(of the 100,000 IOM estimate).
>
>The much larger segment ("deaths by infectious disease") cannot be so
>quickly assigned such "We're only human" type reasoning.
>
>This is because the hospital staff (and/or decision makers) make the
>decisions to through out the sterilization procedures used 30 to 40
>years ago (when I was in the business). For example, individually
>packaged sterile gloves aren't seen very often around the hospital
>these days. But every room (even surgery prep) has a couple of
>"community glove boxes" sitting on the counter or the night stand...
>for anyone and everyone to jam their dirty little hands into and
>contaminate the entire... (you get the picture).
>
>So... please address these 80,000 hospital pts who die horrible,
>protracted deaths every year from iotrogenic infectious diseases.
>
>Then, let's talk about the annual (totally unregulated) 880,000,000
>private physician visits. Is the cross-infection rate (nosocomial) as
>high or higher than the regulated hospitals' cross-infection rate?

Let's not. Because that's where you have your Paul Bunyan-sized axe
to grind. And I don't care, because you're trying to extrapolate from
some poorly-defined hospital data (you aren't starting with what kinds
of infections these are, or how they were transferred, or anything).

Then off you go into the wild blue yonder, with your meaningless
speculations about what is happening in doctors' offices, based on
what's happening in hospitals (only you don't really know what's
happening in hospitals, or whether it has any relevance to a doctor's
office).

You were a bit easier to take when you were on your earlier crusades
about the Mayo Clinic or whatever. It was more obvious up front that
you were a loon.

  -- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net
     These are my opinions only, but they're almost always correct.
       "If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants
           were standing on my shoulders." (Hal Abelson, MIT)

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Infectious Hospitals?
    ... The annual 80,000 iatrogenic deaths were CDC's numbers... ... packaged sterile gloves aren't seen very often around the hospital ... Is the cross-infection rate as ... high or higher than the regulated hospitals' cross-infection rate? ...
    (sci.med)
  • Re: Infectious Hospitals?
    ... >>packaged sterile gloves aren't seen very often around the hospital ... >>protracted deaths every year from iotrogenic infectious diseases. ... > some poorly-defined hospital data (you aren't starting with what kinds ... > happening in hospitals, or whether it has any relevance to a doctor's ...
    (sci.med)
Quantcast