Interview Highlights
– “Hospital infections kill more people than AIDS and breast cancer combined…where is the outrage?- most of these infections are caused by inadequate cleaning and sloppy procedures in the hospital.”
– The biggest predictor of who is going to get an infection in a hospital is “what room they’re assigned to” because the room may not have been adequately cleaned.
– New technology to address hospital infections include a non-toxic “robotic cleaner” that operates in the room continuously. It is a “big breakthrough”. In a pilot program it reduced infection rates in a hospital over 6 months by roughly 70%. This will be available by the end of the year.
About Betsy McCaughey
Betsy McCaughey was the 72nd Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1995 to 1998. She has been a fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute and Hudson Institute think tanks. She founded the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) in reaction to a rise in anti-biotic resistant infections. In five years, RID has made hospital infections a major public issue. It has provided compelling evidence that preventing infection improves hospital profitability as well as saving lives, and RID has won legislation in over 27 states for public reporting of infection rates. RID has become synonymous with patient safety and clean hospital care. In 2009, her criticisms of the Affordable Care Act – then a bill being debated in Congress – again gained significant media attention in TV and radio interviews, and may have specifically inspired the “death panel” claim about the act. A historian by training, with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, McCaughey has, over the years, provided conservative media commentary on U.S. public policy affecting healthcare-related issues. She appears regularly on Fox News, CNN and many radio shows to discuss her research and how to prevent infection deaths.
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