"Hospitals would have to disclose how often their patients get infections under a bill approved Tuesday March 20, 2007 by a (Texas) Senate panel......"

        Such a tiny, almost well hidden, obscure article that I managed to locate as I scrutinized my local newspaper this evening. This one just boggles the imagination and flirts with plain common sense. Why is it that the most simpliest, mundane, common sense tasks are being treated as if some new invention?

     "Sen. Jane Nelson, said the measure she sponsored would allow consumers to study infection rates online before choosing a hospital."
      All well and good, but to the best of my knowledge, whenever I needed to see a medical doctor, he or she made the choice as to which hospital I was going to end up in. Don't they usually attach themselves to a particular hospital to work out of? 
      I have never been so priviledged as to tell any doctor which hospital I was going to stay at. They are not exatcly hotels or motels. You have to go to the hospital that your particular doctor is affiliated with, right?
     "The last thing a sick person needs is to acquire a new infection while seeking treatment," she said. Isn't that what "staff infection" is?
     "Sen. Royce West questioned whether the hospital industry was trying to use the bill to shield information from victims of medical malpractice and their lawyers. Ms. Nelson said she would urge hospitals and trial lawyers to work the issue out before the bill reaches the Senate floor."
     "Dr. Robert Haley, an epidemiologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, said confidentiality provisions in the bill would not work against plantiffs.
      But he said altering the provisions would unravel a compromise among hospitals, doctors and consumer groups."
     So let me see, exactly what is it that they are worried about?  Are they concerned people might notice that a given hospital is dirty, or perhaps unsanitary? Or are they concerned that their untarnished reputations, therefore their livlihood might be threatened? Or could it be, let the truth be known, that some do not care about their patients? Only care about money, money, money!
      "Nationwide, about ninety thousand patients DIE each year of infections acquired while in the hospital.
      Under Ms. Nelson's bill, hospitals would report quarterly on their infections and the state would verify and publish them on a new Web site.
     One published rate would cover infections among patients who received intravenous therapy in an intensive care unit. Others would track infection rates for different surgical procedures, such as heart bypasses and hip and knee replacements."
     Well, okay, but I still do not hear any mention about CLEANING, CLEANSING, AND STERILIZING. Is it me? Am I missing something?  You would think that CLEAN  and STERILIZATION would be at the top of their list of concerns.  "90,000 PATIENTS A YEAR ARE DYING due to lack of clean hands, sterilzed equipment, clean operating rooms and clean patient rooms? What is wrong with this picture!