Thursday, March 3, 2011

Healthcare Associated Infections: Good News and Bad News


Photo: CDC
The good news: healthcare associated infections are decreasing nationally, largely in part to widespread implementation of common sense risk reduction strategies such as hand hygiene and safety checklists. You can read a nice summary here.


The bad news: for those hoping that public reporting of hospital acquired infections will lead to meaningful and accurate comparison of both safety and quality between health care centers, think again. I refer you to this excellent commentary.


In the end, apples must be compared to apples, otherwise, meaningful comparisons of infection rates between hospitals is a pie in the sky dream.