Thanks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the public can now have access to some information about hospital safety.
For Washington D.C. and all states except Wyoming, blood-stream infection rates in intensive care unites for 1,146 hospitals were released by the agency. The release of the rates cover a three-month span from January-March of 2011. More data is supposed to be added later this year.
Despite the rates, one third of the hospitals stated that there were no infections during the reporting period.
The report covers infections caused by catheters and central lines put into a patient's body.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 27,000 to 65,000 patients develop an infection each year. About 25 percent of those infections turn fatal.
The new reporting requirements, however, only apply to those hospitals that participate in the "pay-for-reporting" program from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Snyder and Wenner, P.C.
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