WCA?Hospital Reports Few Instances Of Hospial-Related Infections
By Kristen Johnson, kajohnson@post-journal.comWCA Hospital has again topped the list of the best hospitals in New York State - this time on a tally of hospital-acquired infections.
In two of the three categories for which WCA was graded, the hospital reported no hospital-acquired infections. In a third category, it reported only three infections out of more than 1,100 procedures performed.
The hospital's grades were reported in the2008 Report of Hospital Acquired Infections, the second annual such report compiled by the state Department of Health.
Marlene Garone, WCA's vice-president of medical affairs, said WCA officials were pleased to see the results of the report.
''It's one of many hospital reports,'' Garone said. ''We use these reports - along with internal and external data sets - to measure and compare the outcomes of care that we deliver. While we recognize and celebrate our quality and safety accomplishments, we also use these reports and data to implement process improvements in areas where we have the opportunity.''
ABOUT THE REPORT
New York is the first state to utilize the Healthcare Safety Network system for the reporting of hospital-acquired infections as designed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This year's report uses data collected in 2008 from 186 hospitals across New York that performed the selected surgical procedures or provided intensive care.
State Sen. Tom Duane (D-New York City), the chairman of the Senate Health Committee, said tracking hospital-acquired infections is of the utmost importance.
''Reducing hospital-acquired infections is an important public health goal that improves patient care and reduces hospital costs,'' he said. ''New York state's reporting system provides a cutting-edge tool for identifying best practices and improving performance across all of New York's hospitals.''
The report measures hospital-acquired surgical site infections for colon, coronary artery bypass graft and hip replacement surgeries, along with bloodstream infections in adult, pediatric and neonatal intensive care units.
''An important finding of this report is that we did not identify a single hospital with high hospital-acquired infection rates across the board,'' said Richard Daines, the state health commissioner. ''The department has begun to work with hospitals reporting the highest infection rates to identify opportunities for prevention.''
THE RESULTS
According to the report, New York hospitals have lower rates of surgical-site infections than hospitals across the rest of the nation, but the same or higher rates of bloodstream infections in intensive care units than those reported nationally.
WCA Hospital was measured only for infections acquired after colon or hip surgery and during a stay in its medical-surgical ICU.
As of June 8, just 73 colon procedures were performed at WCA, with no infections recorded. Throughout the Buffalo region, the region in which WCA was included for the report, there were 63 colon infections out of 1,558 colon procedures performed, a 4.1 percent rate of infection. That's slightly lower than the average 4.4 percent rate of infection .
WCA had performed 110 hip surgeries as of April 8 and again recorded no infections. Throughout the Buffalo region, 31 infections out of 2,378 procedures were reported, a 1.3 percent rate of infection. Across the state, the average rate of infection was 1.1 percent.
The only category in which WCA was above the state average rate of infection was in bloodstream infections acquired during a stay in the medical-surgical ICU. In that category, the state average rate of infection in non-teaching hospitals was an even 2 percent. WCA reported only three such infections - a rate of 2.7 percent. Hospitals in the Buffalo region reported an average infection rate of 1.5 percent.
