Reporting on hospital infections required

March 17, 2008

State regulators unanimously approved a regulation requiring Massachusetts acute care hospitals to report infections acquired by patients in the hospital, according to the State House News Service.

Hospitals will be required to report the infections to the state Department of Public Health and the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety and Medical Error Reduction through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s web-based National Health Safety Network, under the regulations approved by the state’s Public Health Council.

The department plans to work with the Health Care Quality and Cost Council to make the information public on a “single, accessible, user-friendly site,” the News Service reported.

Officials told the News Service that the goal of the regulations is to help eliminate hospital-acquired infections completely by 2012.

According to the department, two million patients a year nationwide develop infections during hospital stays, resulting in 90,000 deaths.

Health care facilities are required to register for the surveillance system April 1, with data collection set to begin July 1.