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EDITORIAL |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Kathy Manderino |
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To: Editor
From: State Rep. Kathy Manderino, D-Phila./Montgomery
RE: Health-care watchdog saves lives
Unless the General Assembly acts this week before the Senate adjourns for the year, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, one of the Commonwealth’s and the nation's most respected voices on health-care quality, could face an untimely and unmerited demise. This issue is one that is very close to my heart, both as an elected official who cares very much about health-care issues and because my late father, former House Speaker James Manderino, was one of PHC4’s founding fathers. PHC4 has been a national model in the collection, analysis and public reporting of health-care data for almost a quarter of a century, and the loss of this independent state agency would be devastating for all Pennsylvanians.
PHC4’s public reporting saves lives – and a recent study in the respected American Journal of Medical Quality found that states that have intensive public reporting requirements for hospitals, like Pennsylvania does through PHC4, showed significantly lower death rates compared to states that do not require public reporting. In fact, using even the most conservative figures from the published report, it can be estimated that, in one year’s time, 1,500 more people would have died if Pennsylvania did not have an intensive public reporting requirement.
Since PHC4 began publicly reporting patient mortality rates in its annual Hospital Performance Report in the early 1990s, in-hospital patient death rates in Pennsylvania dropped from significantly above the national average to significantly below. Also mirroring PHC4’s years of public reporting is the decline in in-hospital mortality for heart bypass surgery in Pennsylvania, which has dropped 51.7 percent in the past 15 years. Additionally, Pennsylvania has already begun to see a decline in the rate of hospital-acquired infections since PHC4 began publicly reporting hospital-specific infections data three years ago. This public reporting process has made meaningful, measurable and scientifically supportable differences in people's lives.
PHC4 nearly met its demise this summer when it was caught in an unrelated political disagreement over the issues of extending health coverage for the uninsured and extending the MCARE abatement program, which provides medical malpractice subsidies to doctors. While these are important issues, it would be a black eye for Pennsylvania if the executive order issued by Gov. Rendell allowing PHC4 to operate until the end of November expires and no action is taken to continue this life-saving agency.
The end of PHC4 would also mean that businesses and labor unions would lose a unique data source that is being used to fight rising health-care costs, especially cost drivers like infections, complications, re-admissions and other patient safety problems, that when identified and prevented, can save big money. Many academic researchers based at Penn, Pitt and other prestigious institutions are dependent on PHC4 data and could lose their ability to leverage millions of dollars in funding from the National Institutes of Health and other funding sources for their important public health research projects that bring much-needed money into our state economy.
Newspapers across the state have touted PHC4 as one of the best values in state government. Public endorsement for PHC4’s reauthorization has been made by the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry, the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO, Pennsylvania Medical Society, the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania, the state’s nursing community and numerous national organizations, including the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Association of Health Data Organizations, AARP, the Leapfrog Group and Consumer’s Union. My dad would be so proud of what has been accomplished for the citizens of this Commonwealth.
It would be unconscionable for us to let PHC4 go out of business. It would make poor business sense and would be a disservice to our citizens. PHC4’s value has been firmly established, having published more than 100 different public reports, 1,000 special reports and databases for health researchers, and attracting more than 5 million hits annually to its Web site. Now we also know these reports save lives and money. It is time to reauthorize the agency.
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