Patients are actually more likely to get an infection while staying at the hospital than when they're at home. Every year an estimated 100-thousand Americans die from hospital-related infections.
Now our exclusive partner, Consumer Reports, is revealing the infection rates at 900 hospitals - including some from our area.
The numbers might surprise you.
The numbers look at infections related to central lines. Those are catheters put into a major vein to quickly deliver medication or fluids.
Central-line blood infections in intensive care units cause nearly a third of all deaths related to hospital infections.
And for years, hospitals assumed these problems were unavoidable, but that has changed.
Dr. John Santa, the medical director of Consumer Reports' Health Ratings, says, "These are completely preventable. We, and others feel there is really only on acceptable rate for these, and that is zero."
And Consumer Reports found many hospitals that met that grade of zero infections.
Other hospitals were graded on how they did compared to the national average of central line infections. That comes from the Centers for Disease Control.
St. Christopher's Hospital in Philadelphia was 42% better than average...
Hahnemann University Hospital was 30% better than average.
A-I DuPont in Delaware was 65-percent better than average.
But St. Francis Hospital in Trenton was 12% below average.
Christiana Hospital was 34% worse than average.
And Children's Hospital of Philadelphia scored 108% below average.
Officials at Children's Hospital tell us preventing central line infections is a priority, and that "we have made tremendous progress in the last year since this data was reported."
Officials of both Hahnemann University Hospital and St. Christopher's Hospital said they were "thrilled" with the good report.
A Hahnemann representative said it was rewarding " to learn that the dedication of our physicians, nurses and staff who work diligently to reduce hospital-acquired infections is being recognized by Consumer Reports. "
Research shows that central line infections can be cut by two-thirds or more with simple low-tech steps such as -
*washing hands before & after touching a patient or a catheter.
*disinfecting a patient's skin.
*wearing protective masks, gowns, caps, and gloves when dealing with a patient with a central line.
Consumer Reports saluted Pennsylvania for its program of mandatory reporting of infections for ALL hospitals in the state. You can see the Pennsylvania Department of Health's most recent report at 2008 Hospital Infection Report
23 states in all have, or are considering similar mandatory reporting.
You can see the Consumer Reports investigation at Hospital Infection Report.
