Mandatory Healthcare Reporting Laws and Impact on Central Line Associated Bloodstream Infections

Source:National Conference of State Legislatures

In the theory the mandatory public reporting of healthcare acquired infections (HAIs) should improve infection prevention best practices and decrease infection rates.

Here is an article written by my VCU colleague Drs. Amy Pakyz and Micahel Edmond. They assessed the impact of mandatory public reporting of HAIs on central line associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI).

The authors compared 159 hospitals, 92 were located in states that had CLABSI reporting and met 3 requirements, 33 were located in states that had reporting but did not meet the 3 requirements, and 34 were in states that had no legislation. 

The finding? There was no effect of state legislation group on CLABSI SIR. There were no significant differences in the mean state CLABSI SIRs among the legislation group

The reasons for this are unclear. Perhaps state reporting laws are simply not effective enough to drive practice change beyond the current CLABSI prevention programs (use of checklists, chlorhexidine skin preparation, Biopatch dressings).  In other words, atop an already robust infection prevention program, mandatory public reporting of HAIs is subject to the law of diminishing returns.

More data are clearly needed to assess the impact of public reporting on HAIs.