A news item on NPR’s Health blog comments on wide variation in central-line bloodstream infection rates across states, based on new data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid. According to the data, 1 in 6 hospitals has high rates of one of the most serious kinds of preventable infections — those caused by catheters inserted into large veins. HPR’s Health Blog writes that patients at hospitals in Maryland, Mississippi, Louisiana, Maine and New Hampshire were most likely to get blood infections caused by central lines, which are narrow tubes inserted in a major vein to inject medicine or fluids or to perform tests. Hawaii, Alaska, South Dakota, Kansas and Indiana had the lowest rates, according to the data, which cover the first three months of 2011.
Read more: NPR’s Health Blog