The Department of Public Health in Massachusetts has released a report on Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) in Massachusetts Acute Care Hospitals, reporting data for July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009. Massachusetts acute care hospitals have been required to report specific HAI measures to MDPH since July of 2008. Seventy-three hospitals have provided data for this report.
The selection of measures presented in this report was guided by recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who emphasized the importance of considering frequency, severity and preventability of HAIs and the ability to detect and report them accurately. The initial measures that best meet these criteria are central venous catheter blood stream infections (CLABSIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs). This is the first report containing hospital-specific data. In future years, additional measures will be reported at the hospital level. This data is self-reported.