Hospital Aquired Infections at Houston Hospitals Reported In New Study

As reported by Yang Wang/ Houston Chronicle

The most common patient safety issue among older patients in the Houston area is systemic vascular infections, a problem often caused by unsanitary or improper procedures during their hospital stay, a new study of Medicare claims shows. Among forty six hospitals within a fifty mile radius of the city of Houston, 50% reported vascular infections in Medicare patients through catheters. A total of 472 "hospital-acquired conditions" were reported from the 234,200 Medicare discharges from October 2008 through June 2010. That's two incidents per 1,000 Medicare discharges in Houston.

Allowing the public to see information about mishaps and errors that occur during a patient's hospital stay has been a contentious issue for hospital personnel, who believe the public could misread it. To date, there's no universal ranking system for the public to determine the safety of the nation's hospitals.The reports released this month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the first to look strictly at how many times bedsores, surgical errors and falls and trauma, for example, occur among Medicare patients. 

To read the full article please visit:  http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7535533.html

For more reporting on hospital acquired infections please visit Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare