But most said the numbers are worthy of study and can be used to ask hospitals and doctors what they are doing to prevent infections. The data covers only the first three months of 2011 and measures only one type of infection in one setting - the ICU.Įxperts cautioned against health care decisions based on the new data. The slice of data released by CMS offers a limited picture of how well Georgia's hospitals are doing. Piedmont Henry Hospital, which just joined the Piedmont system in January, scored worse than the benchmarks. Piedmont's flagship hospital in Buckhead scores better than similar hospitals in the new data. Leigh Hamby, Piedmont Healthcare's chief medical officer. "It's possible and that's what is new and different in the culture of healthcare - the number we are trying to achieve is zero," said Dr. Some hospitals in the new data reported zero infections in the first quarter of 2011. WellStar Cobb Hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit, for example, has gone more than 700 days since its last such infection, WellStar said. The protocols for prevention are so effective that some hospitals have been able to go many months - and even more than a year - without a central line-associated bloodstream infection. "Once you demonstrate that something like that is possible, it becomes overwhelmingly compelling to say that we must do this," said Bell, of the CDC. Following prevention protocols means that hospitals have been able to cut infection rates not just slightly, but dramatically. But research over the past decade has proven that the infections are largely preventable. Newton is encouraged that hospitals are doing more than ever before to combat the infections.įor years, most experts believed that life-threatening infections were an unavoidable consequence of taking care of sick people. Newton stops frequently at the cemetery where his son is buried."People say you get over it," Newton said. "Hospital-acquired infections - I didn't know anything about them."Įmory declined to comment on the case or to confirm the facts. went into the hospital we didn't even know what MRSA was," Newton said. It was a MRSA infection that was resistant to antibiotics. had a catheter-associated urinary tract infection, Newton said. But soon after the operation, T.J Newton got a fever. Tests later showed that T.J. In 2006, his 23-year-old son underwent a heart valve replacement surgery at Emory. Infections that patients get while undergoing medical treatment are one of the leading causes of death nationally. Treating a central-line associated bloodstream infection adds about $17,000 to the cost of a hospitalization.Ĭobb County resident Tommy Newton welcomes the new focus on combating hospital-related infections. "We know that we, and all healthcare providers, still have much to do." For example, Emory Midtown had an infection rate higher than similar hospitals, but Emory University Hospital on Emory's main campus scored better than its peers."Emory Healthcare is firmly committed to preventing healthcare-associated infections," Emory spokesman Lance Skelly said in a statement. Even some hospitals operated by the same health system posted significantly different results. The performance of Georgia hospitals varied in the new data. The new CDC statistics are generally accepted by hospitals as the best statistics available for measuring infection rates. That information will be made public next year. Hospitals are currently sending in their data on catheter-associated urinary tract infections and surgical site infections to the CDC. The data is collected by the CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network and released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on its Hospital Compare website. The number of infections for each hospital is not revealed in the new data, just the score measuring each facility's performance against its peers. The disclosure of the data on bloodstream infections in intensive care units is part of a federal effort that will give Georgians access to even more hospital-specific information in the years to come. Unlike many other states, Georgia does not require public disclosure of hospital infection rates. The release of the new infection data is important for consumers in Georgia. Even though new research has shown that such infections are largely preventable, the CDC estimates that there were about 41,000 such infections in U.S. Central lines are narrow tubes inserted into a large vein in a patient's neck or chest to provide medical care.
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