2006年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-States Push to Disclose Hospital Infectio

Renee Montagne: This is Morning Edition from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

John Ydstie: And I'm John Ydstie. In Your Health this morning, two stories on medical report cards and how people are using them. We look first at efforts to rank hospitals according to their infection rates. Each year, an estimated 90,000 people die after picking up a bacterial¹ infection in a hospital. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.

Allison Aubrey: When 51-year-old Sandra Grello scheduled an elective surgery on her hip², she expected to recover quickly. But during her hospital stay, she picked up an antibiotic-resistant staph infection.

Sandra Grello: It really took a toll³ on my entire body. I lost 8 months of work. My husband had to hire a caretaker to take care of me. So the cost was very extraordinary.

Allison Aubrey: A new initiative in Grello's home state of Pennsylvania aims to protect future patients by requiring every hospital to disclose infection rates.

Marc Volavka: To publicly release information that will help the public identify providers that are doing a better job at preventing infection than those that aren't.

Allison Aubrey: Marc Volavka directs Pennsylvania's Health Care Cost Containment⁴ Council. He says, ultimately, Pennsylvanians will be able to compare hospitals head to head, the way residents of Florida now can. Six months ago, the Florida Health Care Administration launched its first-of-a-kind website rating each facility.

Allen Levine: The first day that we had it online, we had 70,000 hits. And we're averaging, I'd say, probably 1000 to 2000 hits a day.

Allison Aubrey: Allen Levine, the secretary of the administration, he says right now hospitals are listed as below average, above, or just average. Ultimately, he says, the goal is more specificity. Lots of states are watching Florida. A dozen legislatures are considering their own infection reporting laws. For the time being, there are loopholes in all the state efforts. Take for instance the case of patient Sandra Grello. She says her infection never showed up on her hospital paper work.

Sandra Grello: My discharge diagnosis⁵ was complications of hip surgery. It never said hospital-acquired staph infection.

Allison Aubrey: As the systems are refined, the hope is that the mandatory⁶ disclosure will prompt hospitals to improve their surveillance and operating procedures.

Lisa McGiffert: Most of these infections are preventable, and clearly there is much that hospitals could do that they are not doing.

Allison Aubrey: Lisa McGiffert of Consumer Union says, even simple things, such as enforcing hand washing in the hospital or standardizing⁷ the way antibiotics⁸ are administered to patients before surgery.

Allison Aubrey: Allison Aubrey, NPR News.

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Words in NPR
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bacterial infection: 细菌感染
staph: staphylococcus; 葡萄球菌
head to head: 交头接耳地
for the time being: for a short period of time from now, but not permanently; 暂时
complication: a medical problem or illness that happens while someone is already ill and makes treatment more difficult; 并发症

1 bacterial   

a.细菌的

参考例句：

• Bacterial reproduction is accelerated in weightless space. 在失重的空间，细菌繁殖加快了。
• Brain lesions can be caused by bacterial infections. 大脑损伤可能由细菌感染引起。

2 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

3 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

4 containment   

n.阻止，遏制；容量

参考例句：

• Your list might include such things as cost containment,quality,or customer satisfaction.你的清单上应列有诸如成本控制、产品质量、客户满意程度等内容。
• Insularity and self-containment,it is argued,go hand in hand.他们争论说，心胸狭窄和自我封闭是并存的。

5 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

6 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

7 standardizing   

使合乎规格，使标准化( standardize的现在分词 )； 规格化

参考例句：

• These composite indices are derived by standardizing each of its component series. 这些综合指数是使通过把它们的组成部分中的各个数列标准化而获得的。
• Significant progress was made in rectifying and standardizing nonbank financial institutions. 整顿和规范非银行金融机构取得重要进展。

8 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。