From: johnpolito@comcast.net
Date: Thu, 12/04/03
Premature Birth Rate Ups South Carolina Care Costs
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) December 1, 2003
-- South Carolina has one of the highest rates of premature births in
the nation and, because of medical advances, it's costing more to care
for such infants.
The state has the third-highest rate in the nation of premature
births. Caring for those babies, especially very low-weight babies,
costs $72 million more per year than had the children been born full
term, according to a study by epidemiologist Dr. Thomas C. Hulsey.
Very low-weight babies require, on average, 56 days in the hospital
compared with two days for a full-term baby. Those who survive
represent 1.3 percent of the births in this state but 45 percent of
hospital charges for newborns, Hulsey found.
"They have the greatest demand for medical care and health care
resources," he said. "These very fragile newborns represent a small
percentage of births (but have) a tremendous impact on the health care
system."
"They are basically fetuses out of the womb," said Dr. Carol Wagner,
an attending neonatologist at the Medical University of South
Carolina. "Each organ system is immature and at risk. The main organ
we try to preserve is the brain. Sometimes, it is a lost cause."
Only one in 20 to 30 babies born at 23 to 24 weeks' gestation survive,
she said. Weighing just 1 to 1 1/2 pounds and about 12 inches long,
such infants spend four to six weeks in the hospital.
About 60 percent of infants born at 25 weeks survive while about 90
percent born at 28 weeks survive.
Survival rates have improved during the past five years with the help
of better ventilators and drugs, better nutrition and more knowledge
of how babies develop, Wagner said.
But the medical costs don't stop when premature babies leave the
hospital. More than half have serious physical disabilities, and most
have some kind of learning disability, Wagner said.
Hulsey found that, as such infants grow, they suffer higher rates of
abuse and neglect as well as behavioral and psychiatric problems.
They often must repeat grades in school, require special education,
are less likely to graduate from high school and will generally earn
less money as adults, Hulsey found.
"It is not unreasonable to estimate that any society with a large and
persistent low birth rate also will be characterized as having greater
poverty, poorer child and adolescent health status, poorer school
performance and higher rates of associated adult health problems,"
Hulsey reported.
Several things are thought to contribute to the incidence of premature
births, said Luanne Miles, director of the Division of Perinatal
Systems at the state Department of Health and Environmental Control.
They include mothers who weigh too little when becoming pregnant,
those who have poor nutrition and those who use drugs or alcohol
during pregnancy.
Smoking contributes to 20 percent to 30 percent of all low
birth-weight deliveries nationwide while reports also link obesity,
diabetes and high blood pressure to low-weight births, Miles added.
ŠThe Herald News 2003
Link to original article -
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10597725&BRD=1710&PAG=461&dept_id=3469
86&rfi=6
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The obvious question flowing from this article is why MUSC and the
Hollings Cancer Center continue to refuse to abide by their published
mission statement "To provide leadership to the state in efforts to
promote health and prevent disease."
[see - http://www2.edserv.musc.edu/president/mission.htm ]. It's one
thing to identify the problem but another entirely to provide
leadership in correcting it.
The Hollings Cancer Center is a wonderful wonderful life-saving
resource that has really dropped the ball when it comes to realizing
its full potential to reduce the actual number of victims walking
through its doors each year.
It's time for leadership accountability at all levels in South
Carolina. No, our state's medical, dependency and health care
leadership was not elected by the people but we the people pay their
salaries, we the people are the ones doing the early dying, and we
the people of S.C. have every right to demand accountability for being
at the bottom of our nation's health statistics barrel and to heap
praise upon those demonstrating dedication to turning things around.
John R. Polito
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