Denton honored for state infection reporting law

montgomery - A Shoals senator's work to turn personal tragedy into positive hospital consumer legislation has received recognition for the work by the state's largest organization serving hospitals.

And early work to begin setting up the statewide hospital infection reporting system that the Mike Denton Infection Reporting Act requires is under way at the Alabama Department of Public Health.

Sen. Bobby Denton, D-Muscle Shoals, said when he introduced legislation to set up the infection reporting system, his goal was to help consumers find information about infections in hospitals. Five years ago, when his son died at age 42 from a staph infection after knee surgery, Denton said his family did not know such infections were a problem.

He finally gained passage of the legislative act earlier this year.

On June 27, the Alabama Hospital Association recognized Denton with its Special Citation Award for his work to pass the law.

Michael Horsley, association president, praised Denton for pushing the law through the legislative process. Horsley said the law will aid "health providers and the general public in preventing the spread of infections."

The law gives the state one year to set up framework for a system that includes hospital reporting of various infections.

Some of the infection data will be available only to public health and other medical officials, but some infection data will be available to the public by computer.

It is the public information access that Denton said pleases him most.

The law also requires that a Health Care Data Advisory Council help develop regulations and standards for the reporting program. Public Health spokeswoman Patricia Vinson said early work to name members of the council is under way.

Denton said the number of hospital-acquired, antibiotic-resistant infections is growing. Until the new reporting system is in place, Denton said Alabama has no system to track where and how often the infections occur. He said it is especially important for consumers to have a way to compare rates of such infections and where they occur.

"I want to prevent it as much as possible and try to get people to be aware it happens," Denton said during discussion about the bill in the Legislature.

State Health Officer Dr. Don Williamson said the law could be "a springboard for other data tracking, something that could benefit hospitals and public health."

On a practical side, Williamson said hospitals would be able to see how they are doing compared to other hospitals and learn from each other.