Besides UM and Henry Ford health systems, the other largest Detroit hospitals with the lowest ratings for avoiding infections overall are Detroit Medical Center’s Harper University Hospital, Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit and St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac.
Advertisement
Marin General Hospital and Novato Community Hospital are performing at or below the national benchmark in avoiding infections, according to a new ranking by Consumer Reports released Wednesday. The MRSA and C. diff Ratings are now part of Consumer Reports’ hospital Ratings, which also include central-line associated blood stream infections, surgical-site infections, and catheter-associated urinary tract infections.
The magazine staff analyzed data that hospitals report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on five different hospital-acquired infections including two of the most common and deadly, MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus) and C. diff (clostridium difficile). Each year witnesses around 290,000 Americans developing C. diff infection, either in hospitals or in other health care facilities.
More than half of all hospitalized patients will get an antibiotic at some point during their hospital stay, but studies have shown that 30 percent to 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are unnecessary or incorrect.
Hospitals distinguish themselves when they earn high ratings against both infections: 105 succeeded in that.
“Our ratings scale is on (a) better-to-worse scale and to get our very top rating you had to have zero infections, but then to get our second-highest rating, you still had to be much better than average”, Peter said.
A few regional hospitals reported zero cases of certain infections, but because the volume was so low, the results were not statistically better than baseline rates.
UF Health Jacksonville, which had to answer questions from Gov. Rick Scott last May about the fact its score for hospital acquired infections and injuries was the worst in Florida, is getting black marks for its hospital acquired infection rates from another source.
“They aren’t all measuring the same things or even data from the same time frames”, Pretzlaff said. About 8,000 people die from MRSA infections and 27,000 people die from C. diff. University Medical Center, MountainView Hospital, North Vista Hospital, Summerlin Hospital and Spring Valley Hospital received the second-lowest rating for avoiding MRSA infections.
Another problem tackled in the report concerns the use of antibiotics.
“We are not yet where we’d like to be, but we are making significant strides in reducing our infection rates and will continue to do so, ” spokeswoman Mary Masson said. “Our commitment is to continual improvement on behalf of the patients and families we serve”. We closely follow best practices and guidance from local and national groups, including the CDC and Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
In recent years, Floyd Memorial has changed its testing methodology to better detect organisms and has enhanced prevention by taking several steps, including starting a program “to assist in a more appropriate use of antibiotics”, “placing a new emphasis on isolation precautions”, and increasing compliance with personal protective equipment, according to a written statement by Kevin Inman, vice president of nursing. MRSA enters the bloodstream when the bacterium comes into contact with cuts, abrasions and scars.
Advertisement
At least partly because of the overuse of antibiotics, people are now dealing with difficult-to-treat, antibiotic-resistant conditions, Consumer Reports notes. Consumer Reports also evaluates individual hospitals for readmissions, mortality, patient experience, C-section rates, and other criteria. The national baseline is the number of infections expected to occur at hospitals in the country based on data reported for a specific period to the National Healthcare Safety Network. Right now, “how do you know that there is one?” The hospital’s worst rating was for MRSA, where 43 infections during a combined 262,911 patient days put it 48 percent below the national rate.
