Health Highlights: Feb. 23, 2015

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

One Patient Dead in Superbug Outbreak in North Carolina

A superbug linked to two deaths in California has killed a patient in North Carolina.

So far this year, 18 people have contracted carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE), Carolinas HealthCare System spokesman Kevin McCarthy told CNN.

Of those 18 patients, 15 had CRE when they were admitted to the hospital in Charlotte and three acquired it while in the hospital. The cause of the infections is unclear, as is the cause of death of the patient who died, McCarthy said.

Seven people in Los Angeles contracted CRE after routine endoscopic procedures and two of them died, the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center said last week. CRE was a contributing factor in those deaths, but the exact cause of death wasn’t disclosed, CNN reported.

The patients in Los Angeles were infected by two medical scopes that were contaminated with CRE despite being disinfected according to guidelines.

The UCLA medical center is contacting 179 other patients who had endoscopic procedures between October and January, and is offering those patients home tests to screen for the deadly bacteria, CNN reported.

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Nursing Home Quality Website Tightens Standards

Nearly one-third of nursing homes in the United States had their quality ratings lowered Friday by federal government.

It’s the result of changes to one of three major criteria used to rate nursing homes on the Nursing Home Compare website, which uses a one-to-five star system to rank more than 15,000 nursing homes, The New York Times reported.

Federal officials adjusted the curve for the quality-measures rating, which uses data collected about every nursing home patient. The adjustment was made due to criticism that the rating was artificially inflated and inaccurate.

The changes will make it easier for consumers to see differences between nursing homes, as well as prompt nursing homes to make improvements, according to federal officials.

“You do need to raise the bar,” Dr. Patrick Conway, chief medical officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said at a news conference, The Times reported.

When it’s fairly easy to achieve a high rating, “that’s not going to incentivize the same level of improvement,” Conway said.

Nursing home industry representatives claim the changes will frustrate, rather than help, consumers. Advocates for nursing home residents said the changes were long overdue.

“We think that rescaling the quality measures will result in improved reporting of the quality of care a nursing home may provide,” Robyn Grant, director of public policy and advocacy at the group Consumer Voice, told The Times.

The Nursing Home Compare website receives 1.4 million visits a year, according to
government officials.

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