The Pennsylvania Department of Health released its annual report on healthcare-associated infections. The 2011 report uses three benchmarks to determine hospital performance: catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central-line blood stream infections and
six types of surgical site infections. These healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs, were chosen because they are good indicators of the quality of infection control in hospitals. In addition to an overall decrease in HAIs, each of the three benchmark categories
showed between 4 and 10 percent decreases in infections. These findings show that hospitals are making progress in addressing these benchmarks, resulting in better patient outcomes and reduced health care costs.
New to the report this year is an appendix that displays HAI trends over time for each hospital, as well as health care worker influenza vaccination rates in hospitals from the 2011-2012 flu season.