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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, Jan. 15, 2010 |
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Colorado Hospital-Acquired Infections Annual Report Available OnlineDENVER – The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment today released its third report for the Colorado Legislature concerning the status of the Health Facility-Acquired Infections Disclosure Initiative. The report contains data for surgical site infections in cardiac, orthopedic and abdominal operative procedures. The report also provides data from adult and neonatal critical care units and long-term acute care hospitals for central line-associated bloodstream infections. Hospitals, hospital units, ambulatory surgery centers and dialysis treatment centers must report health facility-acquired infection data as a condition of their state licensure. Due to the phase-in of the reporting system, this report includes only data from hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers. Dialysis center data will be reported in future years, as they will begin collecting data in March 2010. This information will empower consumers to make informed health decisions and, through quality-improvement efforts at health facilities, lead to improved patient care at Colorado hospitals,” said Ned Calonge, chief medical officer of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. Colorado’s Hospital-Acquired Infections Disclosure Act (House Bill 06-1045) was approved in June 2006. Hospital-acquired infections are infections that occur during or after treatment for a medical condition. Although many hospitals collected and tracked infection data before the law was implemented, the reporting system ensures hospitals and other facility types are using the same definitions and data constraints so the information can be compared to national rates, according to Calonge. The report describes the disclosure initiative, the phased implementation approach, initial reporting requirements, the National Healthcare Safety Network Web-based reporting system, and limitations in implementing the initiative and use of the data. The National Healthcare Safety Network released new national infection rates in December 2009 but will not update its systems with the new rates until the end of January. However, since the department is tasked with providing the most current data from facilities and the safety network, the department was able to compare each facility’s infection rate to the new national rate. Thus, the comparisons with the new national rates are included in this report. This report and other health facility-acquired infection bulletins are available online at www.cdphe.state.co.us/hf/PatientSafety/HFAI/index.html. For more information about this report or patient safety initiatives underway at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, please contact the Health Facilities and Emergency Medical Services Division at 303-692-2800 or visit www.healthfacilities.info. ---30--- |
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