Healthcare Industry Public Health 

Wide differences in hospitals' performance on infections

Partner: 
Press-Enterprise
Summary: 

California consumers were urged not to read too much into its first-ever report on hospital-acquired infections. In fact, though, the report suggests some wide differences in performance, and interviews with hospital officials show that many medical centers are working intensely to reduce their infection numbers. In some places, these efforts appear to be paying off.

Impact Summary: 

California consumers were urged not to read too much into its first-ever report on hospital-acquired infections. In fact, though, the report suggests some wide differences in performance, and interviews with hospital officials show that many medical centers are working intensely to reduce their infection numbers. In some places, these efforts appear to be paying off.

Results
Inland area hospitals grapple with infectious diseases
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | January 24, 2011
 Infection expert Silvia Gnass had barely begun her new job at Riverside County Regional Medical Center two years ago when she began counting cases of patient infections to report to Washington and Sacramento. The numbers dismayed her. Too many patients were getting sick because of bacteria traveling through the same catheter lines intended to feed, medicate and heal them, she concluded. In 2009, according to newly released data, her facility's intensive-care unit had one of the higher rates statewide for line infections, among the most intractable, even deadly infections found in hospitals worldwide.
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Results
City of Hope vigilant in fight against infection
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | January 24, 2011
The three-dozen cancer patients on City of Hope's top floor are among those least able to fight off infection. They've received bone marrow transplants to infuse their blood with healthy new cells. Their white blood cell counts hover near rock bottom. A healthy person might have a count of 5,000 disease-fighting white blood cells. Some patients on the top floor have no white blood cells at all. "If you added up all their white blood cells, on a good day, you might get enough for one normal person. On a bad day, not so much," said Annemarie Flood, coordinator of the infection control program at City of Hope, a nationally known, 177-bed cancer center in Duarte.
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Hospitals actively seeking to reduce infections in facilities
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | January 24, 2011
Visitors riding the elevators at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles find themselves face-to-face with colorful floor-to-ceiling posters on the inside doors. "Zero is the Greatest Number," reads the logo, part of the prestigious hospital's campaign to drive down to zero the number of infections within its walls. The posters appear in all 42 elevators in the facility, reminding employees and assuring patients and visitors that Cedars has infections in its sights. The posters signal a sea change in the hospital world. Barely a decade ago, few people talked openly about hospital-acquired infections.
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Results
A guide to the four infection types
Deborah Schoch, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | January 24, 2011
The California Department of Public Health is required to report data from acute-care hospitals on four different hospital-acquired infections: MRSA, or Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus:  A staph infection that does not respond to certain antibiotics. Can be serious or life-threatening for patients in hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities. Tied to surgeries, intravenous feeding and other invasive procedures.
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Results
Chart: Inland Empire infection rates
Riverside Press-Enterprise | January 24, 2011
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Results
Audio and Photographs: City of Hope
Lauren M. Whaley, CHCF Center for Health Reporting | January 31, 2011
Annemarie Flood is the infection control coordinator at City of Hope, a nationally known, 177-bed cancer center in Duarte. Listen to her audio clips below and click through the photographs to get a better understanding of how Flood and her colleagues work to prevent infections in their highly vulnerable patients.
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Results
KQED features hospital infections radio story
Center Staff | March 21, 2011
Multimedia Reporter Lauren M. Whaley joined Senior Writer Deborah Schoch to produce a story about a hospital in the Inland Empire making great strides in its fight against central line infections. Listen to the radio story that aired on KQED's Health Dialogues.
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Results
Impact of 'wide differences in hospitals' performance'
Deborah Schoch | April 16, 2012
This project changed the storyline about how consumers should read state data on hospital infections.  The Department of Public Health had warned consumers away from reading much of anything into the infections report.  In fact, as Deborah Schoch's reporting showed, strong findings could be drawn about hospitals' performance, in ways that could benefit consumers' understanding of which hospitals are doing a good job in warding off infections, and which aren't.
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