Healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates are lower overall at Pennsylvania’s acute-care hospitals than elsewhere in the nation, according to a new report from the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) cited by the Harrisburg, Pa.-based Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP).
HAP says that Pennsylvania, which was selected to participate in the AHRQ national quality improvement program, was the first state to: create a patient safety organization; require the reporting of all HAIs and to release the first hospital-specific HAI report; and develop and implement a payment that would reduce payments to hospitals that experienced preventable serious adverse events.
As a group, Pennsylvania’s hospitals showed improvements in all of the Medicare clinical measurements reviewed, and 60 percent of the state’s hospitals scored higher than the national average in all clinical measures, it touts. In addition, the percentage of Pennsylvania hospitals in the top 10th percentile nationwide increased for all but three measures (2006–2007 vs. 2007–2008 comparison).
