The truth about drug-resistant superbugs sickening hospital patients is even worse than what the headlines suggest. A report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announces a “shocking” increase in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections – which tripled from 2019 to 2023 and caused an estimated 1,100 deaths. But the ugly truth is, dirty hospitals are causing these deaths, not CRE.
CRE are bacteria new to the U.S. since 2001 that can only be treated with IV antibiotics, not oral medications. Half the time, not even IV medications work, and the patient dies.
The CDC reports that CRE spread in hospitals because health care workers skip cleaning their hands between patients, and hospitals fail to clean rooms and medical equipment, even devices inserted in patients to diagnose them. Ugh!
That’s the same reason more common infections also spread from patient to patient in hospitals, causing 100,000 deaths a year.
CRE are merely a red flag. The problem is far bigger than one germ. As many more common hospital infections become drug-resistant, going into a hospital will be too unsafe unless hospitals clean up.
Cleanliness is the first line of defense to protect patients from killer germs. But many hospitals refuse to make it a priority.
Shockingly, the No. 1 predictor of which patients get a hospital infection is what room or bed they’re assigned to. Not their age or the illness that caused them to come to the hospital. Their room assignment.
If a patient is put in a room where the preceding patient had an infection, the risk of getting infected goes up almost fivefold, according to research in the American Journal of Infection Control. The previous patient was discharged, but germs were left behind on the bedrail, call button, curtain, and mattress. All invisibly lurking to sicken the next patient.
Beds are cauldrons of infection-causing germs.
Clostridium difficile, or C. diff, is the most prevalent infection and kills nearly 30,000 Americans a year – mostly hospital patients. It’s caused by oral-fecal contamination. Traces of one patient’s feces get into another patient’s mouth. How could such a gross thing happen in a hospital?
Easy – placing the patient in a bed with a dirty mattress.
Emory University scientists tracked the fate of patients placed in a bed where a preceding patient – even 90 days ago – had C. diff. The risk of getting C. diff more than doubles. Mattresses absorb bodily fluids and are usually only inspected once a year. Scientists conclude that being put in a bed after a C. diff patient, even after three months, is “significantly associated” with being infected.
Here’s the bottom line. The CDC has been sounding the alarm about drug-resistant infections for at least 15 years. Former CDC Director Tom Frieden coined the phrase “nightmare bacteria” about CRE back in 2013. Well, the nightmare has spread rapidly to many more hospitals, and one of the chief causes is still with us, though it can be remedied if only the agency mustered the will to do it.
The CDC should be setting rigorous, specific standards for cleaning hospitals instead of the vague, worded blather it calls guidelines. Are you listening, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
Until 1970, hospitals routinely tested surfaces for bacterial contamination. Then the American Hospital Association and the CDC jointly advised hospitals to stop routine testing. The rationale apparently was that if patients got infected, they could be treated with antibiotics, which had come into wide use.
That’s no longer true. The drugs don’t work against many of the superbugs, including CRE. Lax hospital hygiene is dooming patients to sickness and death from infections – whether it’s a new, rare organism or a dreaded, common one like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or C. diff.
As drug resistance increases, the danger will soar unless hospitals clean up.
New Yorkers should be especially outraged. New York State is one of the hospital capitals of the nation. Yet hospital infection rates are higher here than the national average, according to the state Department of Health. Not good for patients and lousy for business.
If you’re visiting a loved one in the hospital, skip bringing flowers and candy. Instead, bring a canister of bleach wipes and wipe down the bedrail, call button, and other surfaces everyone touches.
A study at the Mayo Clinic showed that wiping the high-touch surfaces around the bed once a day with a bleach wipe reduced C. diff infections by 86%.
That simple step could save a life.
The question is, why isn’t every hospital doing that?
Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey.
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In the early 1970’s when I was an LPN, each floor and section in the hospital where I worked, had their own cleaner. The cleaner not only kept the floors, counters, and hand rails clean, but they cleaned empty beds thoroughly with anti bacterial cleaners and in some cases, bleach. When my Mom was in hospital , in the early 2000’s before she passed, there were piles of dirt in the corners. The rehab nursing home they sent her to was worse, and she contracted C Dif there. By the way C Dif can be eliminated with the use of wide range pro biotics to restore healthy gut bacteria, if the doctor will allow them to be given. Every section of every floor should have it’s own cleaners who sanitize the old way. I too avoid hospitals, and don’t even like to visit friends, or family, who are in hospital. I wear a mask when I do visit to avoid contracting anything respiratory. I also recommend gloves to avoid contact infections. I live in central NYS.
I know why I continue to avoid hospitals. My hometown hospital is more interested in the bottom line ($$$$$$$$) and then there is this situation on top of it. There are 25 hospitals in the vicinity that I can go to and only one that is trusted in serving the people around them safely.
During my 4 day stay in hospital in 2020, my floor was never mopped, my bed linens were never changed, I had to ask for a bath, a toothbrush, Kleenex, and anything else. The hallway was dust mopped but never wet mopped. I saw my assigned nurse only 2 times during 4 days. If you are a sick person, which I was, you are better off at home. I sent a 4-page letter to the administrator and he never even acknowledged the letter. They do not care.
My father died last year after contracting C. Diff. during a hospital stay. Once infected, it was a horrible downhill experience. My mother died 85 days before he did. She was hospitalized because of a bad fall. We had to remove her from one hospital because the “cleanliness” was atrocious and the quality of care was disturbing. The second hospital, sadly, was not much better. I was a doctor in a hospital in the late 80’s. As reported by another commenter to this article, there were “housekeeper” whose job was keeping the facility clean and rooms “disinfected”. I’ve been in healthcare for 41 years and have never seen it as bad as it is now. Why is that? It’s a combination of factors. First, the third party payor system (medical insurance) has put profit/investor shares WAY above the needs of both the healthcare system and the patients. The end result of that? Not enough profit in healthcare facilities to hire the best and brightest, and to hire the required ancillary staff (like “housekeepers”). Another result: Decreased “doctor/patient” time for diagnosis and finding root cause of disease, and addressing those causes. Collateral result: throwing meds at disease (fast, simple, placates patients…but side effects and more meds to combat side effects). Insurance companies and Big Pharma benefit. Second, medicine is not run by accountants and attorneys rather than healthcare providers. Pinch pennies to control overhead. Short essential ancillary services and require healthcare providers (Doctor and Nurses) to see too many patients. End result: less quality of care and ability to avoid missing critical information required to treat patients appropriately. Third, medical education is being driven by Big Pharma, the realities of insurance-driven care, and DEI (yes…admissions to schools in NOT based on merit…look up UCLA’s recent trouble keeping accreditation). Fourth, high chronic stress and ultra-processed foods are ruining baseline health and creating chronic conditions. Smoking, drug use, lifestyle choices all contribute to chronic disease. Finally, decades of overuse and improper use of antibiotics, combined with fewer antibiotics being developed has allowed for the emergence of these so-called “superbugs”. The multitude of factors responsible for hospital-related deaths is too great for this article to cover.
It is. good to have the information about the carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae Betsy – providing that information is appreciated
This is an important article. Would like to suggest some ways to deal with the unclean situations at hospitals – more people should increase their knowledge of Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology And if anyone has a fear about standing up to doctors then they should lose it and remember this is America land of the free and home of the Brave. Public Health can be improved through a combination of knowledge and responsibilities that good citizens can practice.
Your writing this article is appreciated Betsy Regardless of the specific infection or the circumstances involved in a hospital more people should become knowledgeable of at least the basics of Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology. Something else of importance if anyone has a fear of standing up to doctors they should lose it
And remember this is the land of the free and the home of the brave
I agree with Max the other contributor to commenting on this article about the lack of trust with hospitals. Hospital culture needs much improvement This carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae infection is good to know about
. Combining knowledge and responsibilities will improve public health.
That’s horrible information this is open borders to make big pharma Obama socialism goal
Of course hospitals are dirty. They are the place for patient to get well not for scads of visitors trailing through at any time of the day, dragging kids behind them. They come from outside bringing in loads of bacteria and other goodies, it is the survival of the fittest, bacteria too gets stronger to combat meds.
In 2008 my husband was in Jackson, TN. hospital. He had surgery, but ended up being there for 3 months. It was STAFF, however that hospital closed down a wing at a time, and almost gutted them. Making it almost like a new hospital. I venture to say it is now the safest around.
Generally the so-called “superbugs” are the wimps of the bacterial world. They have a mutation., a defect, of some kind that allows them to resist abiotics/antibacterial agents. Such a thing generally comes with a cost such that if put among normal bacteria where the abiotic is no longer around they will be out competed and drop back to low numbers. Something a professor once said when I was in training that stuck with me was “ironic as it sounds throwing a bunch of dirt around the hospital may be the best way to eliminate the superbugs.” In short, it is overuse of abiotics and cleaning agents that allow the “superbugs” to thrive and out compete normal bacteria that is the real problem. Our own germaphobia creates this issue.
Your writing this article is greatly appreciated Betsy . Regardless of the specific infection or the circumstances involved in a hospital people should become knowledgeable of at least the basics of Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy and Physiology.And something else of importance if anyone has any fear of standing up to a doctor they should lose it. I agree with the other contributor Max making a comment on this article in connection with the lack of trust involved. So this carbapenem resistant Enterobacteriaceae is good to know about. People with a sense of responsibility can do much to contribute to better public health by combining knowledge and their sense of responsibility
This has been going on way before 2019, I had foot surgery in MD, back in 2008, I contracted a severe staff infection, it was hospital born and man made pharmaceuticals didn’t work, I had numerous. Pic lines and 4 more surgeries, and so meny antibiotics, over a FIVE year period, they wanted to cut my foot off, allison, 6000 and garlic extract from GNC, saved my foot, garlic is a natural antibiotic and it cured my foot in 3 months.
The filth in hospitals is ourtrageous. The Administration is to blame and so are the doctors..who see it and do not address it..until it is their own family member. Doctors offices are included. Buildings are just as dirty. NO ONE IS ADDRESSING THIS ISSUE.THIS IS INCLUDES, INSTUTIONAL FACILITIES, SCHOOLS,, DAY CARE CENTERS. TRAIN PEOPLE TO CLEAN IS THE BOTTOM LINE.
What are the symptoms of the infections?
In a hospital I was in shortly after Covid, the air handling system was so dirty you could scrape the greasy dirt off the vents with your thumbnail. I asked for a different room and the second one was worse. I brought it to the hospital’s attention, but was ignored.
Cleanliness is next to ‘The Bottom Line’, and, therefore, must be eliminated. Evidently…
When my baby girl was in the hospital in the early 90’s, the shower patient families could use was so filthy I didn’t even want to go in it. Looked like it had never been cleaned
The introduction of hurry up and become a medical provider, i.e. quickie college courses, has caused this issue. Students do not experience clinical training, i.e. school of hard knocks. They are not encouraged to take pride in their work, observe, communicate and go above and beyond. Yes, administators and profit is the problem. I was a victim of administration cuts in patient care standards and almost died. They forget: “what goes around comes around”!!!
open borders are to blame. before the 1980s this was nearly non-existent. the enemies of the greatest country in the history of cavitation is only defeatable by hit-and-run attacks and propaganda/indoctrination over a decades. look around! learn something.