[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 7, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H1275-H1276]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       ELIMINATING PREVENTABLE HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATED INFECTIONS

  (Mr. TIM MURPHY of Pennsylvania asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. TIM MURPHY OF Pennsylvania. I would like to welcome my colleague 
from Pittsburgh in his first time in the Speaker's chair.
  Mr. Speaker, more people die each year from infections they pick up 
in hospitals than from AIDS, breast cancer or auto accidents. The 
Centers for Disease Control reports these health care-associated 
infections contribute to 90,000 deaths per year, with annual costs 
exceeding $50 billion. Medicare costs for patients who contract an 
infection while hospitalized is five times higher than for patients 
without these infections. For Medicaid patients, costs are 14 times 
higher.

[[Page H1276]]

  Many hospitals have dramatically reduced infection rates by 
implementing patient safety procedures. I will be introducing the 
Healthy Hospitals Act to provide financial incentives to hospitals for 
savings gained from eliminating these infections, and require public 
reporting of infections so health care providers and patients can work 
together to save lives and money. We need patient-centered health care 
that promotes patient choice, patient safety and patient care quality.
  To learn more about eliminating preventable health care-associated 
infections, I invite my colleagues to visit my Web site at 
Murphy.house.gov.

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