Hospitals in California are opposing efforts to publicly report infection rates, although at least five other states mandate such reporting (iHealthBeat). California lags behind at least 15 other states in monitoring hospital-acquired infections.
Public reporting of hospital infection rates currently exists in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Vermont and South Carolina, where infection data are posted on a public Web site.
As previously blogged, hospitals in California are now required to report to local health authorities certain kinds of staph infections that result in death or a stay in the intensive-care unit.