Home • Newsletter • Meeting Information • Membership • Officers

Job Opportunities • Sites of Interest

Nosocomial Infections are a Red Flag - Managed Care Hurts New Mexicans

White Page for Public Health Policy Makers in New Mexico

By James Besante

2007 Article Links

Benefits of ASM Membership
Challenges of Writing
Double Epidemic
Fifth Disease
Fish With Hormonal Imbalances
Frankel Photos
Frankel Talk
Hep C Meds
Horror of AIDS
Hantavirus in New Mexico
Juan Reyna
Nature or Nurture
Nosocomial Infections are a Red Flag
Open Eyes to Science
Pandemic Flu Plans
Polio
Project ECHO
Typhoid Mary
West Nile Prevention
Zoo Diseases

Nosocomial or hospital-acquired infections infect 5 to 10% of all patients hospitalized in the U.S., at a cost ranging from $4 to $11
billion annually. These statistics highlight one of the biggest problems with nosocomial infections in the U.S.  There is neither
sufficient research nor exact data available to health care providers and policy makers alike.  However, there has been some data collected that shows a significant rise in nosocomial infections at many hospitals in New Mexico. This increase coincided with the state's transition to managed care organizations in the late 1990's.  Has the
switch to Medicaid managed care led to a higher incidence of nosocomial infections?

For-profit managed care organizations have changed the health care delivery systems of our state. One criticism of managed care is that it has led hospitals to use outpatient care more frequently, in an attempt to cut the high costs of patient hospitalization.  Many of the state's health care providers believe there is a growing trend throughout New Mexico for hospitals to favor outpatient care as a less expensive alternative to hospitalization. There has been little research into whether or not hospitalization is being discouraged by the state's for-profit managed care organizations.

If outpatient care is used more readily by New Mexican hospitals, the patients that are hospitalized must be in comparatively poorer health.

These patients may be more susceptible to opportunistic infections, than those patients being treated with outpatient care.  The quality of care provided by managed care organizations may not be the cause of an increase in hospital-acquired infections.  The
concentration of patients who are more vulnerable to infection has contributed to the increase in hospital-acquired infections reported under managed care. Hospital practices adopted after New Mexico's
switch to Medicaid managed care have altered the data collected on hospital-acquired infections.

To properly address these issues, more research must be conducted on the incidence of nosocomial infections and the relevant practices of managed care. The overall question facing New Mexico's health care delivery systems is whether or not the private sector is beneficial for both patients and providers alike. The issues that have arisen around nosocomial infections serve as a red flag of shortcoming in New Mexico's managed care.