Gastrointestinal illness is focus of concern

[gdpawel]

On February 28, 2009 our local newspaper reported that one of our local hospitals had about 70 patients reporting ill with what was termed a higly contagious gastrointestinal illness, according to a hospital spokesman. About 50 employees also called in sick with similar noroviruslike symptoms during the past week.

The hospital spokesman noted that with this illness, they are particularly concerned with the susceptibility of the frail elderly. This article has me very concerned. Two years ago, February 28, 2007, the same hospital had an outbreak of the GI norovirus. Sixty staff members got it.

A little over two years ago, the local Manor Care nursing home doubled the capacity for Medicare patients just out of hospitals where it pays the most money. They renamed their Station One nursing unit to T.C.U. Over 125 residents fought off the norovirus, some of them being reinfected, five died. Guess where the norovirus epidemic started? T.C.U.

In a Reuters article that year, it said that Manor Care profit rose 56% on sicker patients, as it treated sicker and better-insured patients at its nursing homes. Sure padded their bottom line, but at whose expense?

Whenever you put patients just out of the hospital with very contagious diseases in with healthy residents, you jeopardize the health and welfare of those nursing home residents.

In light of a Federal Complaint Survey that was conducted on this Manor Care last September, which showed the infection rate within the facility ranged from a low of 14.42% to a high of 44.55%, almost twice to five times the national average of 9%, I am very concerned that any of this hospital's transfers to this nursing home's T.C.U. unit would certainly spread throught the building like it did two years ago.

[LivingDeadNurse]

we got it here in our area too