Report shows Missourians' hospital infection rates

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Missouri officials released a report Thursday that they say will provide an overview of how state hospitals fare in preventing infections.

The report, which will be updated quarterly, takes a cue from a state law requiring hospitals to disclose information about infections that occur at their sites. The information can be found at www.dhss.mo.gov/HAI.

"This is just one indicator that the public can use to help them look at the quality of health care they are being provided," said Eddie Hedrick, senior epidemiologist with the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, who helped compile the report. "This is giving them a little bit more information to help them make [health-care] decisions. At the same time, it's encouraging hospitals to get better."

Gov. Matt Blunt says it marks the first time Missourians will "have clear, useful information about these deadly infections" that stem from medical care.

For Lisa McGiffert, the report falls in line with the mission of her and other advocates of public health reporting.

"We've been watching and waiting and are very glad to see a report finally coming out," said McGiffert, who directs an anti-hospital-infections campaign for Consumers Union of Yonkers, N.Y., which publishes Consumer Reports magazine.

She said Missouri is the third state to release a report with hospital-specific infection rates. The report allows people to compare their hospitals to others in the state and region.

She said her group's review of Missouri hospitals so far shows that "quite a number of the hospitals are reporting zero infections."

State Rep. Rob Schaaf, R-St. Joseph, who sponsored the infection information law, said consumers should be careful not to draw conclusions about a hospital based only on what they find in the report. He said the information is not complete and could be misleading.

Hedrick said the initial information doesn't include surgical site findings, but those will come in February.

The state law, passed in 2004, requires hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to report central line-associated bloodstream infections, specific surgical site infections and ventilator-associated pneumonias.

"A lot of hospitals have increased their capacity to look for infections," said Hedrick, who worked in hospitals for 35 years before joining the state health department in 2004. "They've changed their protocols and made it a priority instead of putting it on the back burner. I think the law has had some impact on that."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in 20 patients, or about 2 million each year, develop infections while being treated in the hospital. Of those, about 90,000 die.