Massachusetts Medical Law Report Blog

It isn’t new news that hospital-acquired infections are an ongoing problem.

Here in Boston, Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center is leading the charge to be clear with patients about its rates of infection.

And today, an official from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will soon reveal a new “national action plan” to prevent hospital-acquired infection. According to Modern Healthcare (requires free log-in) the action plan was discussed at the Joint Commission’s 2008 Annual Infection Prevention and Control Conference in Chicago.

The plan, which is expected to be released in October, will reportedly focus on four types of hospital-acquired infections: catheter-associated urinary-tract infections, surgical-site infections, bloodstream infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia.

HHS is stepping up in the face of a recent GAO report that criticized the agency for a lack of a focused effort to fight the problem.