I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
NMI’s Trip Jennings sat down with Sarah Gustavus of KUNM this afternoon to talk about New Mexico’s decision to start publicly disclosing the number of hospital-acquired infections on a state website this fall. You can listen to the…
Later this year New Mexico will start a public website to display the number of infections patients contracted at several medical facilities around the state. The website won’t break down the infection rate by facility. That comes in July 2011, when the state of New Mexico will start reporting infection rates by facility, meaning the public could compare how careful — or careless — hospitals and medical centers are in preventing — or allowing — sometime deadly infections. The catch: hospitals won’t have to share the data if they don’t want to on certain infections.
Hospital-acquired infections increased nationwide in 2009 despite growing awareness about the problem and moves to improve medical practices, the nation’s health secretary said Tuesday.
“In 2009, healthcare associated infections increased and minorities were less likely to have insurance and less…
The new federal health care reform law may add millions of Americans to the ranks of the insured. Much less unheralded, says a national consumers group, is the law’s attempt to reduce the number of hospital-acquired infections, a problem that has garnered scrutiny over the past decade. The new act, signed into law by President Obama last month, also will require more public reporting of medical errors, such as infections, at hospitals, something that is not yet occurring in New Mexico.
New Mexico has no law requiring hospitals to publicly report rates of hospital-acquired infections, despite the recommendations of a 2009 Healthcare-Associated Infections Advisory Committee report. The lack of public disclosure, supporters of such openness say, means that New Mexicans don’t have a way to measure the quality of care they receive at the state’s medical facilities.
