Hospital Acquired Infections – tracking and reporting

June 19, 2012 - PRLog -- Hospital infections are recognized as a major issue in the American Healthcare System.   Hospital acquired infection not only are a danger to patients but also create a huge financial burden to Medicare and Medicaid. Millions of dollars are spent every day caring for patients who were sickened by an infection which often could have been prevented.  The newly launched website http://www.healthcareinfection.com/ includes information the efforts of state and federal agencies to track and report on hospital associated infections.

In order for the government to get a better understanding of how hospital infections impact healthcare in America they are increases their tracking of hospital acquired infections.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has different programs to track hospital acquired infection and prevention efforts on a local and state level. Its National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) is the largest hospital acquired infection reporting system in the United States with more than 8,000 healthcare facilities participating. The CDC also partners with 10 state health departments to gain information about new HAI germs, advanced infection tracking methods and antibiotic resistance.

The main criticism of monitoring systems is that healthcare settings define hospital infections differently or use different methods to gather information on them, making comparisons difficult and meaningless. That is why some experts are calling for a national standard for hospital acquired infection and public reporting for all states.

The public can learn HAI rates for individual hospitals, HAI rates for each state and which states require public reporting on the CDC’s website.