Investigative reporting reveals dangers of HAIs in Las Vegas hospitals

Two reporters, Marshall Allen and Alex Richards, were tasked to investigate and report on the quality of hospital care in Las Vegas. After two years of extensive research, the Las Vegas Sun this month published their findings in a multi-series called, “Do No Harm: Hospital Care in Las Vegas.”

Allen and Richards dived deep into data that hospitals submitted to the state of Nevada (they obtained a record of every Nevada hospital inpatient visit going back a decade – 2.9 million in total) and what they found were both fascinating and alarming. For example, the rate of patients who contracted MRSA rose by 34% from 2008 to 2009 and that 2,010 patients were infected with MRSA and C. diff while hospitalized during the two-year period.

Here is a video summary by Brian Greenspun, editor and publisher of the Las Vegas Sun